Shoals of Dust
by Luminous Beginnings
Summary: Tides of light have stolen him from where he belongs. Alone, he must stand and fight, in a galaxy where he stands as the last of his kind. The burden placed upon his shoulders is of the hero he replaced. Now he waits until he can hand this burden back.
1. Motes of Light

A/N Just for reference, this is an idea that I dreamed up some time ago. Had it sitting in my mind, so I finally decided to type it up and see how it goes. Fair warning, this story will not be updated for quite a while, as I'd like to get one of my other stories completed before attempting another. Plus, the intro feels too similar to how my main project started, and I fear I wouldn't do it justice if I wrote the two in parallel to each other. Of course, this is barring any sort of change in circumstances.

(Note: Edited 12/08/11)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and if I did, I would be clobbered with a Bludger. On that note, I do not own Mass Effect. Shepard would run me over with the Mako for even insinuating that.

Chapter 1 - Motes of Light

Harry Potter enjoyed his life.

Voldemort was dead, and had been dead for many years. It had been a turning point in Harry's life. Free from the thought of him swooping in like a guillotine hanging over his neck, he finished Hogwarts and found a girl. However, he could not settle down, not for a long time. His reclusiveness when he was young and carefree gave way to wanderlust, with him exploring the world, and see all that he had never seen. Of course, he had taken her with him all this time. They were together the first time he saw the see. The first time he explored his own country, seeing everything that most others had taken for granted. And the first time he left his home to explore the world. Together, they saw more than most men could claim to have seen.

That is not to say their adventures were full of peace, for many a time some hapless fool would try to stake their own claim as the new Dark Lord. None were even worthy of the title, as they easily fell before the quick spellwork of his wand. At first, his wand did a lot of the talking, before his partner's joined him; a pair of conductors that weaved a symphony of magic.

One day, however, Harry Potter began to feel something else. A sickness, a yearning, for his home. As soon as the girl, now a woman, found out, she dragged him back home without so much as a by your leave. There, they found that home had changed since they had been gone. Neither for the better, nor for the worse. The war had claimed many lives. Most, however, were those elderly with the traditional seats of power. The people, seeing this, were confused. They could not relay on the statesmen whom they had known for generations. Albus Dumbledore, Tiberious Ogden, and even the dowagers Augusta Longbottom and Amelia Bones were gone. They had to think for themselves, and choose of who remained to lead.

This brought out the vultures in force, hankering for the electable positions in the legislature. Many a good people were able to get into power through sheer charisma. However, the same applied to many a bad people. The end result was a gridlocked Wizengamot and a fence straddling Minister. Neither reforms could be passed, nor more restrictive laws be enacted. At the very least, Harry took grim satisfaction at the fact the country had not slid any further than it had.

Of course, he would not be able to stand to the side. For three more years, he found himself working to improve the state of the country. He championed many of his allies and his friends, propelling them into the positions that were needed. However, when he was asked to run for the highest position, he declined. He was more than happy to let someone else tack over. The people were very reluctant to do so, recognizing him as the only major figure around. He reminded him that he would always be there, to do what is right.

Eventually, Harry Potter got what he wanted. After twelve years, and as he prepared to enter the fourth decade of his life, he was allowed to finally rest. His fortune made sure that he would never have to work, although he was sure that one day, he would eventually take up an occupation just to keep his hands busy. Until then, he had time to settle down, enjoy his time with his wife, and finally start that family he had wanted for so long.

As said, Harry Potter enjoyed his life.

That night, he found his wife on the porch in front of the house, looking at the stars. He quietly walked beside her, taking her hand in his as he looked up at the sky. Squeezing it gently, he asked, "What is it that you see?"

She simply says to him, "Just thinking if there is anything else out there. Anyone else. It's hard to believe how we're so small, sometimes."

A soft smile crossed his face. "It is, sometimes. We've seen how big this world is, and yet, there could be so much more to see." He shrugged, before speaking softly. "Perhaps one day, we'll be able to go up there, and see the stars ourselves."

His wife sighs, before leaning into him. "That would be lovely. Would that mean that you'd be Skywalker?"

Harry had to chuckle to himself. "Nah, I'd rather be Han. That way, I get the girl too." He ended his statement by squeezing her shoulders, before wrapping his arms around her.

"Of course you would dear." She snuggled into his arms, before looking up at him. "No matter what, I'll follow you wherever you go." It was something that she had told him many times, both in the war and over the past twelve years.

"And no matter what, I'll never leave you behind." It was also something that he had promised her, just as many times. After they stood there for a few more minutes, Harry heard a yawn. Laughing softly to himself, he teased her, "Alright sleepyhead. Sounds like it is time for you to be going to bed."

She snorted, and playfully punched his chest. "Meanie." Before she could say anymore, she yawned again. Glaring at the mirth on his face, she pouted. "Well, if you're going to be like that, you'll have to carry me to bed."

Shrugging to himself before picking her up, he grinned at her squeal. "Oh, hush, it's nothing you didn't ask for." They both laughed as he carried her up to their room, before laying her down in the bed. Without further adieu, she covered herself with the blankets. After a few more seconds, she had begun snoring softly. Silently laughing, as he knew he wouldn't let her live this down, Harry sat down in the chair.

It was amazing to him how sweet and innocent his wife looked when she was sleeping restfully. That was on top of how beautiful she looked to him any time of the day. He had partaken of his watching activities a few times over their trip. Of course, the first time she had caught him asleep in the chair, she had sussed out exactly why he was watching. That was also the time that she sussed out his feelings for her instead. So Harry felt that the embarrassment was worth it. Now, of course, it had become one of their little in jokes.

As he sat in the chair, he slowly felt his eyes becoming droopy. His hand fell over his robe's pocket, where twin sticks of wood rested in safety. In the one corner of his mind that was still thinking, he knew that she would rib him over falling sleep in the chair. But he knew that it would be worth. With a smile on his face, he slid into sleep, awaiting the coming of the next day.

Not a few seconds later, Harry Potter became as of light, before turning into motes of blue dust that scattered into the wind.

-oo-

A man found himself staring into the image of the burning sun as he listened to a status report from one of his chief operatives. The only indication that he had heard anything she said was the tightening of the crow's feet about his eyes, and the manner in which he snuffed his cigarette out. Looking down at the woman, he finally held a hand up, stopping her in the middle of the speech. Leaning towards the hologram of the woman, he spoke to her. "I'm not quite sure i follow, Operative. If I heard you correctly, I am to understand that the Lazarus Project is behind schedule, and extremely so?

The woman gave the barest flicker of surprise at his words. "Unfortunately, that is correct, sir. The bio-regeneration has proven much more different in his neural cells than anticipated. As you directed us to return the subject to his state before his death, we have avoided any cybernetic implants in locations where it might affect his behavior."

The man bit on the end of his cigarette, inwardly wishing that he hadn't snuffed it out. He wouldn't show it, but he could use a drag of the nicotine in it at the moment. "Very well. Considering that we are bringing back a man from the dead, I should say I shouldn't be surprised. Your estimates were off, though, Operative Lawson. It concerns me slightly."

This got the woman's attention, as she let her head hang down slightly before replying. "My apologies sir. I had not foreseen this complication. Should I speed up the project by force? With the larger use of cybernetics, we can repair the badly damaged areas more quickly. If Shepard turns out to be unstable, we can always…"

The man cut her off sharply. "No, Operative Lawson. We have had this discussion before. Even if I did agree so, Humanity needs a hero. No matter how long of a leash that we place on him, it is still a leash. And the rest of humanity is still too plebeian to understand what we are doing for them." After he received her reluctant assent in reply, the man lit his cigarette again and took a drag from it. "But the important note is that humanity needs a hero. And if Shepard isn't ready, we must have one in his stead, at least for until he is." He leaned forward, looking her image straight in the eye. "Instruct the Faustus segment of the Lazarus Project to proceed with their operations."

The image's eyes widened. "Sir, you can't believe that some group of occult fanatics can deliver us…" This time, she shut up at the glare she received.

"Their promise may be ludicrous, but not terribly much more than yours. It took many years of study to achieve this much, as there are no _wizards_, as far as we know." He paused to take a exhale, spewing out smoke. "Besides, we do not have much of a choice. We both know our enemy is on the move."

The conflict still raged in her eyes, before she finally nodded. "Very well. I still think this is a bad idea. This is a true unknown we'll be releasing on the galaxy. And all we've got on top of that is a few antique books which shouldn't exist." With that, she disconnected from the link.

After staring for a few seconds at where the woman was just previously standing, he turned the chair back around and stared at the sun once again. Almost without thought, he punched up a dossier that he himself had compiled from the antique books his people had recovered. It was a fascinating idea, after all. Human wizards, with powers unmatched even by biotics. And their last great hero could help hold the line, until humanity's current hero was revived to take his place.

-oo-

A bright white light filled Harry Potter's vision as he awoke. When he finally regained complete consciousness, he simply sighed and pushed himself up, thinking it was just another prank. He idly reached for a wand in his robe pocket, only to realize his robes were gone. No longer so amused, he finally took a good look around at his location. Sterile walls greeted him, with not a single sign of where he might be in sight. Looking down, he had noticed his clothing had been replace with an odd set of pants and shirt that bore a sigil on its chest. Reminded of a Muggle athletics company for some odd reason, he shook his head to clear his mind.

Harry spun himself off of the bed and slid onto his feet. Old instincts kicking in, he quietly moved across the floor, looking for any signs of his possessions. Seeing what appeared to be a locker at the far end, he snuck over and attempted to open it. After a few seconds of deciphering the rather odd looking lock, he found what appeared to be the open button. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He growled softly in frustration, trying a few more times before calling it quits.

Deciding to attempt to try wandless magic, at which he was hardly proficient at, he stood back before holding his hands at the device. Before he could even attempt to do anything, however, a hiss emanated from his right, which startled him. Harry spun around, feeling his tension rise as a door opened up.

As it did, a woman stepped inside, glancing at him and then at the locker. Ignoring the scene, she spoke to Harry. "I see that you are finally awake Mr. Potter. Before I explain what is going, would you kindly follow me?" As she spoked, the woman began walking over to the bed where Harry had woken up.

This whole time, Harry had been watching her warily, waiting for her to make a hostile move. Even though he realized that she was not going to make one, he still did not follow. "Who are you and why did you bring me here?"

The woman raised an eyebrow, clearly amused about something. I am afraid you didn't understand, Mr. Potter. I will explain the situation to you after you submit to an examination. We need to ensure that you are healthy after your trip here.

Still, he didn't move. Harry believed it was rather obvious that this was some ploy by a Dark Lord. _One that is not too shabby either, if he could kidnap me through my own wards. But I don't believe that they think that I'll fall for the pretty woman trick_. "I still don't know what I am doing here, or who you are. Considering that I was just kidnapped, I don't feel too inclined to be cooperative. So please, would you inform me?

Her eyes narrowed, staring down the green eyed man before her. After nearly a full minute, the woman nodded, relenting. "Very well. We are currently aboard Lazarus Research Station. I am the Operative in charge of the Lazarus cell." Seeing his still impassive stare, she continued. "I suppose that since you need to know anyway… You are here because we require your assistance. Temporarily, but it is still necessary."

Confusion marred Harry's face. _Lazarus Station? Am I in the Arctic or somewhere like that?_ He reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. "Where exactly is this Lazarus Station? And _exactly_ what type of help do you need?"

A frown marred the woman's face. "That is hardly information you need to know. At least for the former. As for the type of help, we need you to take the place of Commander Shepard until we can safely resurrect him."

At this, Harry's own eyes narrowed. "_Resurrect_ him? is this Shepard some sort of Dark Lord that you are working for?" He took a step towards the woman. "If you know who I am, then you know exactly what I think of Dark Lords."

The Operative sighed, the only sign that her patience was slipping. "Shepard is hardly one of your Dark Lords. Furthermore, we are using technological means to do so, so your _magics_ will hardly matter here." Her mouth spat out the word magic like it was an invective. "Finally, you are slightly behind on the times Mr. Potter. If you want to know, this matter is bigger than Earth."

Harry, took the first two comments in stride. The last one, however, hit him like a Bludger in the gut. "What do you mean by that?"

Smirking ever so slightly, the woman leaned towards him, her ice cold voice warming slightly with dark mirth. "It is 2185 C.E., Mr. Potter. The problem we need you to solve is simple. Until Shepard is resurrected, we need you to hold the line. You've only got humanity and the rest of the galaxy resting on your shoulders. Is that enough information for you?"


	2. Time of Change

A/N Well, this is coming out a lot sooner than I expected. And yet, it came out two weeks after I started on this chapter. Oh well. It just had to come out in bits and spurts instead of all at once. Not to mention I wrote a few various dribbles that never amounted to anything. Oh well. It's finally here, and again I'd welcome any criticism that you have to offer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and if I did, I would be clobbered with a Bludger. On that note, I do not own Mass Effect. Shepard would run me over with the Mako for even insinuating that.

Chapter 2 - Time of Change

Harry just stared at the woman, this Operative, slowly taking in what she said. Raising a hand to his head, he replayed the conversation over in his mind. _The rest of the galaxy? 2185 C.E.?_ _How in the bloody…_ _That can't be right. They kidnapped me across time itself, then? Or it is a particularly elaborate hoax. _

Eventually, he regained control of his thoughts and took a deep breath. After a few moments, he looked up at the Operative, who had grown the slightest of smirks at his befuddlement. "So let me get this straight. You've _kidnapped_ me, apparently through time, so I can serve for you humanity as a _hero_, until your other guy, this Shepard, is brought back to life."

The woman just nodded, the smirk slowly encroaching into her voice. "That would be an exceptionally crude way of putting it, Mr. Potter. However, if you do not believe what I am-"

Slightly exasperated by her tone, Harry cut her off. "Forgive me miss, but the situation isn't that extreme. If you know anything about my kind, you know that we are used to the idea of time travel. This hadn't is the oddest situation I've ever ended up in, either." He paused for a moment, lost in thought. "Yeah, that time in Bolivia was crazy. Not to mention the Swedish problems…" Shaking himself out of his ruminations, he looked back at his captor. "But it doesn't matter, I suppose. You have me here, now. Why did you kidnap me, though? Whatever the problem is, why didn't you just ask the Wizarding World for help?"

Her response was simply a glare at him. Turning around, she clicked away from him, calling over her shoulder. "As I told you before Mr. Potter, you will get your full explanation after you submit to your examination. I have told you more than enough as it is. However, please note that time is of the essence."

Harry just rolled his eyes, but pushed himself "As long as it is just a health inspection as you said. I don't quite trust you at this point."

The pointed accusation had the opposite effect on the woman than Harry expected. She began to laugh softly, the first true mirth she had shown the whole time. "Mr. Potter, I would have been disappointed in you if you had trusted me. Still, follow, and we'll have this done with as soon as possible."

-oo-

Indeed, Harry was surprised at the alacrity of the medical examination. _Either these people truly are in the future, or it still is an elaborate hoax_._ Those orange hand holograms only scanned me with some kind of light, before pronouncing me done. Well, not counting the donation of blood._ Somewhat reluctant to give blood to a perfect stranger without knowing what they were going to do with it, Harry objected. However, the woman did point out that they easily could have taken it while he was asleep. _Besides, this Shepard isn't my enemy, and I gave my blood willingly. What's the worst that could happen? …Never mind, dumb question._

Shrugging that line of thought from his mind, he looked around at the station, taking in the sights. Nothing about the halls in particular screamed very hi-tech at him, although they were obviously muggle in origin. The smooth metal didn't look like anything he had seen before, though. There were no exterior windows that they had come across, precluding him from really determining if they were actually in space. However, there were interior windows for some odd reason. _So they could see within the halls? That would be a possibility. But why not just put a door there, so they could walk through? And I thought moving staircases were silly when I was younger. _

However, it was all the small details of the station that were making an impression on the man. Holographic terminals on the doors inked on and off as his guide led him through the facility. Various terminals, all glowing with blue holographs, littered the various rooms he was able to look in. _Not counting those orange holograms literally everyone seems to have. Some even use them to open doors. Definitely not wizardish. Unless these are all special wands… But then again, that doesn't make sense._

Lost in his ruminations, he barely noticed as the woman led him through another series of doors, before finally stopping in an empty room. Harry glanced up at his 'host' as she began to fiddle with a series of holographic buttons on her orange hologram. Something began to activate around them that caused his hairs to stand on end. He turned his head sharply to ask her something, but before he could say a word she held a hand up, keeping him from saying a word. Grumbling under his breath, he watched as the room around him faded to black.

At the same time, a holographic figure sprang from the now pitch black floor in front of him. Harry raised an eyebrow at the quality of this particular hologram. It was markedly worse than the other ones that littered the facility. _I wonder why that is_…

Before he could voice any of his idle questions, the figure, a man, spoke. "Hello Miss Lawson, I'm glad to see that the Faustus Project was a success. I trust that the subject has been brought up to speed on the reason for his being summoned here?"

This Miss Lawson merely inclined her head towards the hologram. "He has knowledge of the basics of his summoning. I have not had the time to indulge him in any of the particular nuances of the troubles that we are currently facing."

Harry just sighed, glaring at the woman from the corner of his eye. "Hardly, Miss Lawson. Like I said, all I know is that you've kidnapped me in order to fight some undetermined threat until you are able to resurrect your hero."

"Indeed, Mr. Potter?" The man just stared at him, a ghost of a smile on his lips. "I would say that I am surprised, but I am not." Tilting his head to face Lawson, he dismissed her. "Operative Lawson, would you kindly leave us? I have a lot to say to Mr. Potter here, and I do not wish to distract you from your primary task as head of Lazarus Project." The last few words carried an odd weight to them, as if the man was implying something to her. She merely bowed her head to the hologram, before stepping out of the projector. Harry heard the clicks of her shoes as she strolled out of the room, interrupted only by the hiss of the door as it shut behind her.

Turning to look back at Harry, the man's expression settled back into a neutral territory. "First things first Mr. Potter. I am known as the Illusive Man. I personally am in charge of Cerberus. It was I that approved of you being brought to our time. And the first thing that I need to do before we begin, is to apologize."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the impassive man in front of him. "Apologize?"

The hologram of the man nodded simply. "Apologize. It was a last resort that we had to take, summoning you. It was never in our plans to go to such extreme regards. However, considering that our main project is still in the works, we needed someone to take his place. Which leads to you."

Harry just crossed his arms, looking at the man with narrowed eyes. "I still do not see how that justifies kidnapping me from my home, my wife."

Steepling his fingers, the man stared down at Harry. "It is because the situation is that dire. The extinction of the human race could be well at hand."

However angry he might have been, that statement got Harry's attention. "What? What do you mean by that?"

"It's relatively simple. There is an ancient race of sentient starships. Yes, starships," he reiterated after seeing the look on Harry's face. "I know that it would be rather unbelievable with one such as you, but please, accept it for the sake of the argument." He stared down at the younger man as he reluctantly did so. "As I was saying, an ancient race. And by ancient, they are apparently millions of years old. Each one. The most dangerous part is that they are capable of overpowering organic sentients. Overwhelming their mind, and forcing them to submit. It is that capability that makes them truly dangerous."

The man reached down, pulling a cigarette out of some odd container. He lit it, before puffing the cigarette to brighten its flame. After a few minutes, he continued. "To put it simply, two years ago we found geth attacking our colonies." Before Harry could interrupt to ask, he clarified. "Geth are a machine race, for better lack of term. They were created three hundred years ago, and have not been seen outside their territory since they became sentient. To wit, they had never left. Not to attack anybody, nor to seek dialogue with the other races. Which makes the attack all the more curious."

"Eventually, it was discovered that one of these starships, a Reaper, was controlling the geth. Forcing it to do its bidding. They waged a systematic campaign throughout both human and alien space to begin an invasion by these invaders." A small smile played across his lips as he took another draw from his cigarette. "You might say they were trying to find a _conduit_ to open the galaxy's backdoor."

Harry sighed, pinching his nose and furrowing his brow. "So, if these giant spaceships are attempting to take over, shouldn't you use your own ships to fight back? Even as a wizard, I wouldn't give you that much of an advantage."

The emotion faded from the man's face as he met Harry's eyes. "It is because the last time, they were stopped by one man. Commander Shepard."

Eye's widening slightly at recognition, Harry couldn't keep the curiosity out of his voice. "You mean that bloke who you all are trying to resurrect?"

"Indeed." The man took another draw, as holographic smoke danced across the air. "It was due to him and a small band of his supporters that we were able to survive at all. According to reports I have gathered, his team singlehandedly took on entire divisions of get troopers, along with elite soldiers from every race out there. His team only ever suffered one casualty."

A low whistle sounded throughout the room. "That… is impressive. A living legend in his time, from the sound of it." A grimace grew on Harry's face. "So, what took him down in the end?"

"A trap, Mr. Potter. Something that nobody at the time expected." The man settled back in his chair, his voice becoming slightly monotonous. "His ship was attacked and destroyed, with him being blown out into space. Debris injured his hardsuit, resulting with him being suffocated in space. He then was trapped in a local planet's gravity well, causing him to fall and suffer major burns across his entire body from reentry." A dark chuckle emanated from the speakers. "There are of course other, more minor injuries. But that is not quite relevant to the rest of our discussion. What we need to discuss is you, Mr. Potter."

A frown marred his face once again at those words. "I see." Harry crossed his arms again as he stared down the hologram. "I believe I understand why you summoned me here. However, I am not quite sure I should be working for you."

A look flashed across the man's face before he spoke again, voice taking on a sterner tone. "Mr. Potter, this is not about me. This is about the fate of humanity across the galaxy. I admit that many of my methods may seem questionable. Including my _kidnapping_ of you. But everything I do is for the greater good of humanity." After taking another drag, he leaned forward, staring intently at Harry. "Besides, if that was the only problem, I wouldn't have bothered bringing you here. However, there is a situation which has crept up over the past few months, and can not be ignored any longer."

Harry initially chuckled darkly. "At least your blunt about what you do." After a few seconds, the last few words registered. "Wait, something else is happening? What exactly is that?"

A grimace returned to the man's face as he leant back. After taking a sip of drink, he continued. "Over these past few months, entire colonies have been vanishing. While the concept may be foreign to you, Mr. Potter, there are multiple worlds that humanity has claimed as their own, and are trying to settle. Those furthest from Earth have been dropping out of communication with the rest of galaxy. At first, it was feared that pirates, slavers, or get had taken the colonies. Yet whenever reinforcements came, the colonies were found deserted."

Biting back his initial reaction, Harry tried to reign in his surprise. "But… What could do that? Do you have any idea who did that?"

The man merely stated neutrally, "I have a few ideas. I would rather not commit to a specific theory until after the next missing colony has been analyzed. Which comes to you. A few days ago, one of our colonies, Freedom's Progress, was attacked. I want you to go there and find any evidence of whom it was. Perhaps your powers could be of some assistance to us. You might discover the evidence we missed."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I hardly doubt you would need to send me on a scouting mission, even if your thoughts prove right. You've got another angle to all of this."

"Quite, Mr. Potter." The man took another drag. "I do not need you to perform this. However, if my theory is correct, I will be needing you to assist us, however temporarily." After sighing to himself, he stood up and walked around his desk, approaching Harry. "However, I will make a deal with you Mr. Potter. If whatever you find there is not sufficient enough for you to warrant staying, I will send you back. No catch."

Nodding in spite of himself, Harry acquiesced. Still, he grumbled his reply. "I suppose I don't particularly have much of a choice, either?" Not expecting a reply, he continued. "Very well. First though, two things. How did you know of me, and bring me here?"

Turning up his nose ever so slightly, the man replied in an ever so slightly smug tone. "At the very essence of my job, I am an information broker. It is my job to know as much as possible. Over the years, there have been rumors of a different sect of magic. Various old tomes randomly found, some of which made no sense individually. They seemed to be all fiction. However, after putting them altogether, I determined that it was either an incredibly elaborate hoax, or it was all real." Another chuckle issued from him, yet this one was more mirthful than others previously. Of course, a lot of balderdash had to be sorted through. Especially since you, Mr. Potter, were the focus of nearly half of these books. And all varied in their information about you."

"As for the how we brought you here, an expedition was launched on the basis of the books discovered. In a series of catacombs under London, we discovered a room full of shimmering sand. It was quite curious, I will admit. However, I assigned a group of researchers to study it. It was these researchers that discovered its powers, and eventually designed a machine to harness these powers. Faustus project grew to become a backup plan. One that I was loath to use, yet use it I did. But that brings us back to square one."

In the middle of his speech, Harry's eyes began to widen in surprise. _Catacombs under London? Could he mean that he found a way into Gringotts? But this sand… sounds like the remains of the time room._ "Were these caverns natural?"

The man narrowed his eyes, before answering. "No, they seemed to be man made. Nearly Victorian in design, so my teams reported." Tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair, the man continued. "Is there anything else, Mr. Potter?"

Harry tilted his head to the side in thought. _So probably the Ministry then… But what happened? It almost sounds like they were… _ Shaking the image out of his head, he changed his train of thought. _Never mind. I'll find out myself what's happen. Assuming I stay. I shouldn't, but if they need help. Stupid saving peoples thing. Either way, I have something I need to say._ Stepping towards the hologram, he finally answered. "Not ask, but I have a warning."

Seeing the man's face tighten ever so slightly, he continued. "If you know of my history, the reason I was considered a _hero_, you know what I did to earn it first. Magic is life, at least in _my_ world." Pausing to calm himself, Harry quickly rejoined his statement. "Magic may not have many rules, but it does not like to be used to resurrect life. And if you force it to, it often won't come back the way you intended. Even if you are bringing back Shepard by muggle means, there is a chance that magic won't like it. And he might come back _wrong_." Seeing that his statement take its affect, with furrows appearing on the other man's head, Harry ended with, "If that is all, Mr.…?"

A wan smile crept over the man's face. "In my profession, a name is a luxury that I can ill afford. I am called either the Illusive Man, or sir. Either way, thank you for your warning. I will be sure to take it into account." Tapping a few buttons on a monitor in front of him, he said, "I have someone on the way to escort you to the shuttle. I trust you will find him more agreeable than Operative Lawson."

Nodding to the figure, Harry turned around. As the doors opened, the Illusive Man called out one last thing. "Welcome to Cerberus, Harry Potter."

Harry just slowly breathed in and out as he left the hologram behind, with the man still staring at him.

-oo-

Walking through another series of open doors, Harry eventually realized that there was no one here to meet him. Glancing around, Harry eventually saw a man coming towards him while carrying a satchel at his side. Upon spotting Harry, the man sped up until he was standing in front of Harry. After setting the satchel to his side, he saluted Harry, stating, "Jacob Taylor reporting in, sir."

Surprised by his actions, Harry just responded, "I'm Harry Potter. Nice to meet you." After several awkward moments, he asked the question that was on his mind. "I'm just curious, but why were you saluting me?"

Jacob just chuckled slightly. "Former Alliance military. I served for many years, but retired after the get attack on Eden Prime. I eventually joined up with Cerberus, but the old habits died hard." Shrugging, he continued. "Either way, the Illusive Man put me in your command for this mission to Freedom's Progress, so I believe it is still appropriate."

Harry raised his eyebrows at that statement. "He placed you under my command? Why? I've not been in this century but for a few hours."

Shrugging again, Jacob responded, "Probably because he's expecting you to be leading this fight. It wouldn't do for a leader to be led into battle, after all." Jacob shook his head and gestured for Harry to walk beside him. "Besides, we've got the entire trip to the colony to discuss all of this. In the meantime, you might want to take what's in the satchel."

Leaning down to pick it up, Harry began to dig through the satchel as Jacob led him through the station. Recognizing the black fabric inside of the bag, he breathed a sigh of relief. He took a moment to throw his robes back on, before digging through the satchel for more. Eventually, Harry grasped his wands. As he placed them in his pocket, he asked, "So, what's the rest of the stuff in here? I know I didn't bring all of this with me."

Jacob quickly responded. "It's mostly just odds and ends. A pair of boots, since the shoes you had on aren't particularly suited for combat operations. There's also a pair of adaptive interface gloves in there, so you can interact with holograms." A slightly cheeky grin grew on his face. "You might want to be able to open up doors, after all. No knobs in this day and age. Not many at least."

Dubiously, Harry pulled out the black gloves, feeling the odd texture of the artificial fabric. "Interesting…" Harry began to put it on, but eventually halted. "You know what I am? The basics at least?" Receiving a nod, Harry continued. "I'm concerned that it might not work then. Magic has never been very friendly with technology. Especially high tech."

Jacob stroked his chin in thought. "I couldn't tell you. It's not exactly what I'd call a common problem. Accelerometers are pretty basic though, all things considered. Best to check if it works now, instead of waiting till later." When they reached the next door, he gestured to the hologram on the front of the door.

Cautiously, Harry pulled the glove onto his right hand. As he did, he watched it, expecting a reaction. After making sure it was on properly, and wringing his hands to make sure he still had a full range of motion, he raised it towards the door. As the glove made contact with the door, a series of small electrical bolts arced between his fingertips and the hologram. It was gone after a moment, with the hologram retracting and the door opening. As he examined the glove, he asked Jacob, "I don't suppose that is normal?"

The man shook his head, perplexed at what had just occurred. "Hardly. It is supposed to be seamless. It seems fine though, so I suppose you can still use them." Jacob shook his head. "I'm just glad I don't have to be a doorman."

Shaking his head, Harry continued to follow him through the station. "Is there anything else in here? You sounded like you hadn't finished yet."

Jacob answered while glancing back at Harry. "I included an omni-tool in there for you, but after seeing the glove's reaction, I think we should wait until later. I'm not particularly skilled in tech, but I believe I can get us through this mission."

Perplexed, Harry asked, "An omni-tool? What's that supposed to be? Some fancy future monkey wrench?"

Jacob busted out laughing as they turned a corner, surprising a random passerby. "In some ways, actually, yes. It's simply a go too electronic device though. It's designed for diagnostic and maintenance, although it also has repair capabilities. In short, it might be a bit too high tech for you, considering the reaction of the glove earlier."

Nodding, Harry agreed. "That's probably a good idea. Besides, I've got my own way to fix things."

Jacob raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment. Opening one last door, he led Harry to what appeared to be a large crate on the ground. "This here is our ride, though. And your first ride on a spaceship too. Sorry I didn't bring any cake."

Harry snorted. "It's fine. But I expected the ship to be a bit more… grand. Not a flying box."

Jacob just grinned at him. "Well, this is just a small shuttle. Just wait until you see some of the larger ships. I think you might be more impressed by them." Ending his musings, he led Harry to the shuttle's opening door. "Just settle in. I'll tell the pilot we're ready to leave."

Taking a seat near the end of the shuttle, Harry slung the satchel to his side and took out the boots. Lamenting the lack of a window on the shuttle, he slowly pulled his new boots on, making sure they were latched securely. By the time he had finished, Jacob had taken the seat across from him, wearing a slight grin on his face.

"I bet you never noticed us taking off, did you?"

Harry raised an eyebrow, before looking around the compartment. "What do you mean? I didn't feel anything."

Jacob just kept grinning. "Inertial dampeners. You won't feel the shuttle move unless we're making some extreme maneuvers. Or if the pilot decides that he needs to turn them down, to give his rambunctious cargo a lesson."

Harry just nodded to himself, leaning forwards. "I see. I guess I'll have to wait for my dramatic first flight in space. But I wanted to ask you about this mission I'm being sent on."

Jacob held up his hand, face suddenly looking grim. "Aye, but first, I've something I need to ask you. What the hell is a wizard?"

-oo-

Harry's eyebrows shot up. "It's exactly what it sounds like. I thought you believed me? At least, that's what you said."

Jacob just continued to eye him. "Considering the things that Cerberus has done, it is hard to not believe anything. It's not every day that you are recruited in a project to resurrect someone, after all. Or work with a time traveler." He shook his head out. "But still, I can deal with the first two. It's just, I don't have the slightest idea what a wizard is supposed to actually be, or what they can do."

Harry just shrugged, thinking of a way to explain it to him. "It's hard to explain, yet at the same time easy. A wizard is just someone that uses magic. and magic is a wonderful and terrible thing."

Jacob just raised his eyebrow. "I don't doubt you there, considering the stories that were written about you. But what is it? What can you do exactly?"

Initially, Harry thought about whipping out his wand and showing Jacob exactly what magic was. However, he realized it might not be such a good idea on a small spacecraft. "Nearly anything, depending on what you have. With just a wand, I can charm objects, transfigure them, cast curses and jinxes, even small enchantments. If I had the material, I could brew potions, although most of the useful ones take months on them. There are very few things that we can't do."

Jacob raised his eyebrows. "Potions? Don't particularly see how that could be useful. Stims are around, but they have rather detrimental effects on the human body."

Harry just shrugged. "Potions can go from putting anyone in a sleep close enough to be death, to transforming any person to another one, to even granting somebody pure good luck for a few hours. They have their uses." He took a breath, hoping to forestall any more interrogation. "It's probably best if you simply waited until I can show you. It might be easier for you to believe them. Besides, I'm probably breaking the law as it is by telling you."

At this, Jacob leaned back while crossing his arms. "Breaking the law? That sounds very mundane, actually."

Harry just snorted. "We _are_ still human. We still have a government with cowardly corrupt politicians. We still have to go to school to learn our profession. We still eat, sleep, and breathe. We still have our wives to go home to…" At this, he trailed off, looking down at the ground. "I hope this doesn't take too long. I don't want to leave her there alone."

Jacob suddenly looked very contrite. "I'm sorry. If I had known…"

Harry waved him off. "Even if you did, it's hardly your fault. I'm sure she'll be fine. It's just been a long time since we've actually been separated like this. Almost twenty years, now that I think about it."

His companion shook his head in disbelief. "And yet you barely look a day over twenty five."

Smiling sadly, Harry answered the silent question. "I'm nearly forty now, actually. twelve of those years spent politicking to get my home in order. Seven before that exploring the world. And the last to settle down. Or at least try to"

Concerned, Jacob asked, "Are you sure she'll be alright? If you need to go back…"

"Oh no," Harry shook his head, "I know she can take care of myself. She spent most of her time looking after me, not the other way around. Knowing her, actually, I wouldn't be surprised if she followed me here." Harry sighed, looking over at the bulkhead opposite of him. "It's just hard. Even though I want to go home, if what I think is happening here is true, it would be right to stay and help. And I know she would say the same."

Jacob just reached over to Harry and patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll get you home to her eventually."

Harry just gave him a wan smile. "Thanks. I hope I will too." After a few minutes of silence, he asked, "So, I don't suppose you could tell me about all the stuff I don't know? Like the fact that there are aliens now?"

Jacob just grinned. "Oh, yes, there is a lot for you to catch up on. First, let's start with the three council races…"

-oo-

A/N the Second One thing I'd like to point out, is that the gloves are cannon. You really do need special hardware to interface with the holograms. I found it odd that I've never seen someone use this. Perhaps I hadn't looked hard enough. Oh well. As we go to Freedom's Progress, however, there is one question to consider. How would Tali'Zorah and her squad react to a Cerberus crew _without_ Shepard?


	3. Tagging In

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Mass Effect. If I owned the former, half the time would be spent in the Mako, battling hordes of thresher maws. And if I owned the latter, there would have been many fewer monsters in chests. Or perhaps it may be the other way around. Eh, details.

Chapter 3 - Tagging In

A few hours later, Harry was utterly confounded by the influx of information. The idea of there being not a few, but nearly a dozen major alien species out there, some of which had near legendary abilities. _If the Flamels were still around, I am sure they would be jealous. A species which naturally lives for over a millennia? And is almost indistinguishable from humans? Minus the whole blue skin, tentacles, and no males thing. Not to mention the krogan._ _Bloody trolls on steroids from the sound of it. Hope I don't end up meeting one soon._

Indeed, some of the species worried Harry immensely. While the asari seemed mild enough, the turians and the krogan made him pause and think about how he would take them on if he came across someone hostile. _I take it back, even krogan can't be as imbecilic as trolls. Nor are they as likely to carry around clubs. Unless they're these special 'mass effect' clubs. If I didn't know better, I'd say the shoes on my feet are powered by it. I'd almost say it's completely crazy how ubiquitous this stuff is, except that I've been around wizards all my life. Depending on magic, _

That brought him to the next element of intrigue. This mass effect technology. How, when powered by element zero, it would be able to make any objects mass increase or decrease. Through this, they apparently were able to accelerate the ship enough to reach lightspeed. _Or at least something like that. Not quite too sure myself. It was always Hermione who was fascinated by Muggle technology. All of my enthusiasm comes from when she first showed me _Star Wars.

_What amazes me most is what they can do without magic. Of course, a featherweight charm could lighten mass, but I suppose I never have thought of increasing mass instead. Maybe I can watch these 'biotics' and see what they're capable of._ Being powered by element zero, biotics were even more of an impressive creation than ships themselves. _Jacob wasn't too specific in what they could do. I suppose it'll just be one of those things I'll have to see to understand. I've got plenty of believing though, at least._

Harry was shaken out of his ruminations by the pilot telling them they were approaching the colony. Again lamenting the lack of a window to see what was going on, Harry stood up stretched himself. After popping his back, he looked up at Jacob. "So, any suggestions for our little trek through this colony?"

"Not in particular. We're to find who did this to our people, and if anybody survived." Jacob gave Harry a funny look. "So if you know any fancy magic mumbo jumbo that would tell us if they're alive…"

Harry just snorted. "I know a few things which would reveal if a human was present. But we don't know whether any survivor we could stumble across is human. Nor do I know whether it would register with an alien…" _How would my magic work on aliens anyway? I suppose I'll know if we meet one._

Jacob merely nodded before turning back towards the cargo door. With a quiet thump, followed by the hiss of pressure seals releasing, said door raised. The two men stepped outside, both readying their weapons as they scanned the area. While Harry fingered his wand, taking in the pod structures that dominated a concrete landscape, Jacob pounded on the windshield of the shuttle. Without more than a few words of luck sparking over the radio, it disappeared into the sky.

Seeing that the immediate area held no real threat, Harry let his wand ebb slightly, waiting for Jacob to join him. As his companion unfolded a rather oversized pistol, Harry just shook his head before walking to the nearest door. Pressing one gloved hand to the door, they began their search.

Nothing more than silence and emptiness greeted them for quite a while.

-oo-

_Monsters, they are here again. What do, what do. _

_First one monster shuttle comes, and monsters pour out. Send mechs to protect, but are damaged and destroyed._

_Now another monster comes from the dark. What do…_

_Have to stay hidden. But must protect. If can't get offworld, maybe chance can be saved._

_Other monster shuttle left. But first still here. Still hidden, send in mechs to destroy._

_Veetor may not stay hidden. But Veetor won't let them escape._

-oo-

Cargo module after cargo module turned up empty to the two explorers, which worried Harry greatly. It was as if they had never left. The dinners were left on tables, the computers were left on beds with their screens still alight, and in a few cases sinks were still running. Yet in not a single case was a human or other being found. And this worried him.

He turned to Jacob as they searched through their twenty first home. "I know the Illusive Man said that the planets were found deserted, but was it truly like this? As if nothing had happened?"

The younger man shrugged. "As far as I know, that's the case. The Alliance has been rather tight-lipped about any information from these colonies. And the Illusive Man hasn't shared too much with me." A wry grin grew on his face. "That's what Miranda's job was. I'm just here to shoot stuff and make a difference."

Harry chuckled to himself. "Well, I hope it's a bit more than that." He shook his head as they left the pod. "I just have a bad feeling…"

Jacob quirked an eyebrow, while the pair walked to the gate. "Bad feeling? As in, someone is here to rob us blind bad feeling? Or crazy wizard mumbo jumbo is going to curse us and leave us scarred for life?"

Harry slowed down and stared at the younger man, before turning away. "I've seen many things like this before. People murdered in the middle of the night and disappearing. Walking into a mysterious wood and never be seen again. Know of a family that once died at the dinner table, of what seemed to be perfectly good health." He sighed and leaned on the large metal gate that separated this compound from the rest of the colony. "Magic _could_ have done this. But I don't know what's worse. An entire colony gone due to other wizards, or what terrible technological abomination could be the promise if not."

Setting his mouth into a firm line, Jacob just nodded. "You're right. I hope that whatever it is though, we can help stop it. Or hopefully save the colonists here."

Harry simply said, "Me too Jacob. Me too." Pushing himself off of the gate, he laid a hand on the holographic display. "Let's just hope we don't have any unpleasant surprises shall we?"

As the gate opened, Harry looked past where the metal barrier stood, sighting a baker's dozen worth of robots. As their heads turned to meet him, their odd red eyes seemed to flash, and they reached for a sidearm attached to their mechanical hip. Eyes widening, he threw himself behind the side of the gate, Jacob copying his motion on the other side. A torrent of minuscule bullets flew after them, blowing out divots in the concrete whence they stood a few moments before.

Jacob took the initiative by yelling at Harry. "LOKI mechs! They aren't very smart or efficient, but they have good aim and are relentless!"

Giving him a nod in thanks, Harry waited for a moment until the fire let up. As it did, he leaned around his cover and sighted his wand on the nearest one and incanted _Reducto_ in his head. The brilliant light flew from his wand and connected with the robots torso, blasting it into several sparking bits. As it fell, Harry was already casting it at the ones nearest it. All in all, a third of the mechs had fallen before their guns had even moved to cover Harry.

As they began opening up on the now retreating wizard, several shots from Jacob's pistol poured into the group. A few connected with their chassis and merely dented them, but those that met the head unit crashed through the cameras and neatly decapitated them. Again, the LOKI's turned to meet the newest threat, and the cycle repeated over and over until the only robots left standing were wandering out randomly without a head.

Harry cautiously moved out of cover, eyes whipping back and forth to make sure nothing else was coming. Lowering his wand slightly, he gestured Jacob to come out of cover. "Well, that will hopefully be the last time I tempt fate before a battle. At least these buggers weren't too hard."

Jacob merely shook his head as he strode up to Harry. "By themselves, no. This was a relatively new colony, so not many militia. And we're far enough into the Terminus systems that the Alliance wouldn't have put in a garrison. Hence the LOKI's."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't seem to be a very efficient robot though."

Jacob merely shrugged, before checking his pistol. Satisfied that the heat sink was cooling enough, he turned back to the Harry. "By its lonesome, not at all. It's supposed to be used in conjunction with another element. Merc bands use them to supplement their troops, increase the suppression without having to pay for another whole merc. And since they're machines, they can be airdropped almost anywhere, to put pressure onto a certain position." He paused for a second, confused by what they were seeing. "But with only other mechs, they'd usually be used in conjunction with either FENRIS, or YMIR mechs."

Noting the uncertainty in his voice, Harry immediately tensed up, wand snapping back to alert. "So, it would be odd that these robots are here all by their lonesome?" He raised an eyebrow at Jacob. "As in, odd enough that we probably should be expecting them any minute now?"

Eyes widening, Jacob nodded and drew another firearm from the small of his back. As it unfolded into what was either a shotgun or a small cannon in his hands, he focused on the way forward. "Let's go, then, Mr. Potter. If they're arranging us a welcoming party, we might as well decide to crash it."

"Well, that is certainly one way to put it." The pair advanced up the stairs, not taking nearly as much time to search the debris. Harry knew that either someone was controlling these robots, or no one was left and they had been left as a present for whomever came after. _Might as well clear them out while we have the initiative. How many robots would be standard for a planet garrison, anyways?_

Finding another clearing, Harry silently watched over it as a pack of dog like robots silently on one side of the plaza, near some of the pods. As Jacob came up next to him, he whispered to his companion, "So, which ones are these?"

Jacob just frowned, eyeing the mechs carefully. "Those are the FENRIS. They are dog like, supposed to come into close combat and flush you out of cover with shock probes. It's odd that they haven't attacked us yet though. Surely they know we are coming?" The last question seemed to be asking himself as muc has he was asking Harry.

"I have no idea either, but we both know that there is something wrong here." Harry fingered his wand. "So they have to get up close to do any damage?" Receiving a brief nod, Harry smiled slightly. "Well, this should work easily enough." Again, he incanted in his mind, this time recalling the first spell he ever learned. _Wingardium Leviosa._ As his wand first swished about the pack of dogs, their lights came alive as something disturbed them from their duty. As the flick came down, their vocal units came alive with a series of mechanical yelps, as over a hundred legs scampered to find purchase on a ground that was no longer there. The sheer cacophony nearly deafened Harry, yet he maintained concentration as the dog robots firstly floated up, then over one of the cliffs nearby. Releasing control, the mechanical animals continued to yelp as they fell to the bottom.

Wiping away a bead of sweat that had appeared on his forehead, Harry turned to Jacob. "So, does that do the job?"

"I'd say it did." Jacob shook him out of his stupor. "I definitely could never have done that with my biotics. Miranda might could have, as she is more powerful than I am. But still…" Jacob shook his head again. "After seeing that, I have got to say that I love magic."

Harry grinned at him. "Even after I've had it all this time, it still is something, even to me." As they emerged from their vantage point and headed down to the clearing, Harry realized one thing that Jacob had said. "Wait, you're a biotic too?"

Jacob nodded quickly. "Yes sir."

_Sir? Interesting._ "But why haven't you used them yet?"

"There's been no real reason to, yet." He shrugged. "It wouldn't have been that great of an advantage against the LOKI's. I would have used it against the FENRIS, but someone else beat me to the punch."

Harry just laughed. "Alright, I get your point. We should get moving, though. Don't want to be caught chatting if more of those robots show up." Acquiescing the point, Jacob moved up beside Harry as they crossed the clearing to where the mechs originally stood, as they gave a few of the pods cursory glances.

After examining the first few pods, something caught Jacob's eye. "Wait a second, there's something odd here. A few of these pods are locked down." He gestured to a small cluster nearest to where the mechs had been. "See the red hologram? Some purposefully sealed it shut as tight as they could."

Nodding, he walked over towards them, eyeing the hologram. "So, someone doesn't want whatever is hidden in here to be found. Maybe it could be survivors?"

Jacob scratched his chin, before calling up his omnitool and scanning the lock. "It may be. Would have explained the mech's behavior. They could have been reprogrammed to attack anything that isn't a survivor? How could they tell survivors from other humans though?"

"You're asking the wrong person, Jacob." Harry waved at him to get his attention. "Remember, time displaced Brit here?" Idly, he waved his gloved hand in front of the hologram, with little hope that it would open. "No luck, it seems. Any way you could get it open?"

Jacob was still momentarily, studying whatever information was on his omnitool. Eventually he shrugged and shut it down. "Not likely. I'm not good enough with tech to force my way through security. If we had Miranda, we perhaps could, but even then it'd be difficult."

Harry gave the lock a curious look before raising his wand. "Don't know if this will work, but I have a little bit more mumbo jumbo that might do the trick." Tapping it on the metal behind the hologram, he muttered _Alohomora_ under his breath, hoping that the added power might make it work.

Surprisingly enough, it did. As the the hydraulics in the door groaned, he relaxed as he faced Jacob. See, no problem."

Before his compatriot could answer, however, a quick snap echoed across the room. Before Harry could look, he felt cold steel being pressed against his head.

_What did I tell myself about tempting fate?_

-oo-

_Problem. Many problem. Monsters have met with other monsters. Had first monsters trapped. Was safe. Now not safe. What do._

_Must hide. Quickly, monsters can not find. No. Kill egress. Then hide. Mechs will protect me._

_Monsters keep coming. Mechs will protect. Mechs must protect. Hide. Hide._

_Must prevent them. Keep monsters from Seeking._

-oo-

Harry quietly sighed, before staying as still as possible. By the reaction on Jacob's face, he must have had some weapon pointed straight at him. Yet still, Jacob's eyes sought his. Asking instruction. Harry gave the barest shake of the head. There was no way that the muggle could get out of this easily. And Harry couldn't get out of it without Jacob being shot. So he waited for the first five seconds. Then the next ten, then the next fifteen. Deciding that maybe they were waiting on him, he opened his mouth to ask who they were and why they were being held at gun point. Before he breathed out his inquiry, though, he was cut off by the owner of the gun.

The first thing he noticed was that the voice was fairly synthesized. Secondly, the voice was uniquely feminine. The third, and most important thing, was that this voice was _definitely_ angry.

"What do you think you're trying to do hear, _Cerberus_?" Yes, that voice was definitely angry. And said voice contained a large amount of vitriol for his current… employer, in particular. And if that was enough, the gun barrel being jammed into the side of his head was enough to emphasize her words.

Harry tried to answer the voice. "Well, we're attempting to find out what happened to the colonists…" He couldn't get more words out, though, as he was cut off by another voice. This voice was even more indignant than the first voice.

"A likely story. But I know you, _Cerberus_ scum. It's more likely that you took the colonists yourself, and used them in another of your experiments." Harry would have been intrigued at this line. Save for the fact that he had that gun pressed against him, he would have asked exactly what the voice meant. _I probably should have found out more about Cerberus before joining. Sounds like they already have a bit of a reputation._

Jacob sighed to himself, before throwing out on a limb, "Then why are we here?" A silence fell on the group, before Jacob decided to press on. "Look, if it was Cerberus, we wouldn't be here. Since the rest of the colony is gone, and we're here, there aren't many ways to interpret that." The man looked like he wanted to say more, but decided to stay quiet.

The silence left in the wake of his statement was nearly deafening. Harry was sure that whomever these people were, they were communicating with each other silently. After another minute, the gun barrel was slowly removed from his head, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to finally see his assailant, and was met with a cold pair of eyes behind a purple visor, shrouded under a purple hood.

"As much as I am inclined to disagree, you are right," that voice said. "We observed you from one of the security cameras I had hacked when we commandeered these buildings. Whatever it was that allowed you to destroy the mechs, I would not like that turned against us. Like it or not, I'd rather have you on our side."

Harry just raised an eyebrow. Before either him or Jacob could get a word in, one of the other masked people spoke again. "To hell with that! This is Cerberus! I'd rather be dead myself than work with them!"

The first person's eyes narrowed even further before she snapped her head towards the other one. "Then you should have been the ones holding rearguard earlier! It's your fault that we're in this situation anyways!" She suddenly turned and strode over to the other, raising her hand and poking him in the chest. Perplexedly watching, Harry realized that something was just off. _Wait, she only has two fingers. Not four. Did I just have my first meeting with aliens and not realize it until now?_

As Harry was ruminating, the first alien continued to prod the other. "I've almost had enough of you, Prazza," she shouted. "You know that I'm in charge of this mission. I am aware that you are typically the one in charge of your own squad, but I'm sorry that we didn't have enough time to come and rescue one of our people." Her voice began to drawl and took an ironic tone. "I'm also sorry to say that even though we're facing simple mechs, we need to keep down and out of sight. We do not walk out of cover and draw their fire towards the squad!"

The other alien, Prazza, responded. "They're mechs Zorah! What more could they do to us? Damn it, the bosh'tets don't even have shields!"

The leader responded, her voice suddenly turned to ice. "Those mechs managed to penetrate a quarter of the squads' shields. Thanks to your impatience, we've got three of our marines with suit ruptures! From now on, you will be following my orders explicitly. If you even put one finger out of line, I'll sic Chiktikka on you. Do you understand‽"

Prazza glared back at her before neutrally saying. "Yes ma'am. I understand." It was left without saying that he still didn't like the situation. Zorah turned back towards Harry. "Ignore Prazza, Cerberus. He's an idiot." She gestured the two inside, other hand still gripping her shotgun. "Come in. If you truly are here to find survivors, then perhaps you would like to know that there is one here. Maybe he knows what you seek."

Wand still in hand but lowered, Harry walked in alongside Jacob. Once they had proceeded far enough, the door behind them shut, locking them out from the world. The first alien, Zorah, soon stopped them, indicating that they had gone far enough. Both sides stared at each other for a long moment. Eventually, Harry broke down and asked, "So, erm, Ms. Zorah. Who might this survivor be? You know he is here?"

She cocked her head to the side as he first spoke. _What exactly did I saw that was odd?_ She shook her head out, catching air in her odd hood. "His name is Veetor'Nara, a fellow quarian. He is a fellow quarian here on his pilgrimage. When we arrived, we had locked onto his suit's transponder. That way, we could tell he was injured." Suddenly, she averted her eyes. _Odd._ "And, ah, delirious. He was the one that activated the mechs, as far as we could tell."

At this point, Jacob spoke up. "Still, he probably knows what happened here. Making it important to locate him. So, you still know where he's holed up?"

Her synthesized voice responded, "Yes, we do. He's located a few compounds over. But seeing as he's got the entire mech lot under his control, we'd have to fight our way through a number of them. With a full squad I wouldn't be worried, but…" She cast a worried glance at the injured. "Frankly, with three down, and the ones I'd have to leave behind to guard them, I didn't feel like we could make it."

Looking back at the two humans, she continued. "But seeing what you two did, whatever it was, I could use that help. Even if I was a little angry how you were joking around when we were tending to our wounded in here."

Harry reached upend scratched the back of his head. "Yeah… It was hardly the most professional thing that we could have done. He glanced over at Jacob, and the man also had a contrite look on his face.

Evidently, this was enough for Zorah, as her shoulders sagged and her body relaxed. "And it wasn't quite professional of myself either, even considering…" She shook her head. "Enough of that. Do we have a deal? You help me find Veetor, and you can hopefully figure out who did this to your colony. Everyone wins."

Noting the glare that Prazza and a few of the other aliens were giving him, Harry thought that maybe not everyone wins. _But as a I still value breathing, I'm not going to complain._ He turned towards Jacob, only to be met with a nod from the younger man. _I suppose that even if he didn't agree, we're hardly in the position to turn it down._ Harry held out his hand. "Deal, but I do have two questions."

Gripping his hand with her odd, yet stronger than expected two fingers, she replied, "Alright then. What is it that you want to know?"

Harry tilted his head. "What is this pilgrimage?"

Again, her head tilted. _Apparently she wasn't expecting that question. _However, she responded quickly, as if she'd done this many a time. "A pilgrimage is a journey that all quarians take to become adults. The reason for it is…" She shook her head, as if attempting to clear some cobwebs. "Old habit… It doesn't matter that much. I'll just say that he was here working for the colony. Easier than to explain the intricacies of the matter." Glancing back to check that her squad was still orderly, she spoke in an aside, "What was the other question?"

Scratching the back of his neck once again, he asked with a sheepish smile, "So, what is a quarian exactly?"

An electronic snort issued from Prazza. "Well, at least it's apparent why this human joined Cerberus. Probably been scared into thinking that all aliens are the same, and want to eat them."

"Prazza!" Zorah snapped at the temperamental marine. "Enough of that. No antagonizing the guests. Remember Chiktikka?" At his wince, she chuckled darkly. "Makes me wish I still had Wrex here." Turning back to Harry, she gave him yet another odd look. "Well, that question is simple enough. All of us here are quarians. Although why you need us to tell you that, I don't know. Have you never seen another type of sentient being?"

Harry shrugged back at her. "Sure, I've met plenty of things that aren't human."

Zorah tilted her head, giving him an even more confused look. "Well, from the sound of it, you certainly hadn't. I'd almost think, what with the business a few years ago, that all of your kind would know."

_Business? Ah, yes. Reapers._ "I wasn't around for that, I'm afraid. But I never said that I had met aliens. Just other sentients, as you put it."

Now Harry received a flat stare, as Zorah's eyes narrowed. "Really. I spent a lot of time with humans. And I am quite sure there are no other species that evolved on your homeworld."

A smile edging on his face, Harry wondered how far he could push it. "Actually, there are several other species that are on Earth besides us humans."

At this point, both Zorah _and _Jacob were starting at him incredulously. After a few seconds, she speaks, her voice dry as ever, "So you have a multitude of sentient species on your planet. Where do they happen to be?"

"Oh, the government hides them."

An incredulous sigh was the only response. "So, how do you know about them, then?"

Harry's grin was slowly widening second by second. "Well, I first met them when I was in school. But… I did work in the government for over a decade."

Another sigh. "So, you're a former official in the Alliance, you claim? When exactly did you serve? And what did you supposedly do?"

Harry shrugged, grin still widening… "Various things. Ended up serving in most positions except janitor. Because janitor… well, that's really the crapper." Ignoring Jacob's groan, he continued. "As for the when, well, I retired about two centuries ago. Give or take a few decades."

Silence engulfed the pod, until a muttered bosh'tet issued from Zorah's speakers. "Damn it, why must every human I work with be insane for some reason?" Glancing back at Prazza, leaning on the bulkhead, she muttered again, "At least that's a step up from before."

Turning around to face the squad, she barked out orders. "Alright. Everyone, head back to the shuttle. I'll head on with these humans. Just hunker down and wait for me there."

One of the quarians in the rear began to speak up. "But ma'am, are you sure you don't want a guard? It is Cerberus, after all."

Looking back at Harry and Jacob, she merely shook her head. "I can take care of myself. And while these two may be far from harmless, they look at smart enough to not mess with me." At this, she patted the shotgun still in her hands. "Any questions," she asked to any of the quarians in particular. Receiving no reply from any of them, she strode towards the door while activating her omnitool. As the door opened and she stepped outside, she called back without looking, "See you once we're finished, then."

As Harry and Jacob followed her, the latter quietly asked, "So, how much of that was true?"

Harry just chuckled again, before whispering back. "Would you believe me if I said all of it?"

Snorting, Jacob didn't respond until a few seconds later. "Yeah. Sad thing is, I've got the feeling that it will only get weirder the more mention your… magic."

"Indeed. It seems to be one of the few laws that magic listens to." _At least I am reminded of why Albus used to enjoy his games. Or conversations, whichever he preferred to call them. Half truths are sometimes even more believable than whole lies, sometimes. Wait. If that's the case, doesn't that make me Obi-Wan? Crap. I've no desire to mentor someone for less than a few days. Nor getting killed either._

Reaching up with Zorah, who was idly fiddling a few separate buttons on the gun, he almost broke the silence. However, Jacob beat him to it.

"Ms. Zorah, I'm sorry that we didn't get off to quite a good start. I figured that it might be a good idea to start over again. I'm Operative Jacob Taylor."

Again, before Harry could speak. Zorah beat him to the punch. "Hardly. Your organization is never going to get another chance from the quarian people, especially after what you have done. However, I suppose I can stretch a thin veneer of civility, since you've been offering it. I'm Tali'Zorah vas Neema nar Rayya." Throwing a glance at Harry, shed asked, "And who is your insane friend supposed to be?"

Harry just snorted. "Harry Potter. And I'll have you know, from where I come from, I'm quite sane."

Tali just shook her head. "Funnily enough, I can actually believe that. Well, let's get going. It's but a small hike to the where we sensed Veetor was."

Harry just nodded, falling into step. _Since she knows where Veetor is, might as well let her lead us._ He noticed that Jacob still had something that troubled him, but he shook himself out of whatever it was that was bothering him and headed onward.

The next few minutes were rather quiet, with the now trio slowly but surely making their way through the streets lined with pods. However, no more mechs were to be found. After passing through yet another metal gate, Harry became tired of the silence.

Before he could break said silence, however, an enormous blast erupted from the horizon. Instinctively throwing himself behind cover, he turned to Jacob. "What was that bloody great bomb?"

Jacob stared at it momentarily, before yelling back. "That wasn't any normal type of bomb... That was an eezo explosion! Must have been a shuttle or something…"

With growing horror in her eyes, their quarian looked away and began snapping words over the radio. "Anyone, please respond. Prazza, Malo, Kul. What is your situation." After a few terse seconds, she shouted again. "Please, respond!" Another few seconds. Her shoulders slumped down. "Damn bosh'tets…"

Looking at Tali, Harry felt he had to console her somehow. "Hey, Ms. Zorah? You did say that your men are marines. If that was your shuttle, maybe they were able to avoid whomever just… destroyed it." The words still felt hollow coming from his tongue.

She just took a deep breath, still looking away. "Maybe they did. If Prazza didn't figure a way to screw it up again. This mission has just gone wrong from the start… I wish Shepard was here..." Suddenly her eyes narrowed and turned back. "And why do you care at all? You're _Cerberus_."

Harry shrugged back. "It's just the way I am. Don't see a reason to not ask." _Besides, Hermione still nags me about my saving people thing… Or would it be nagged now? Bah, time travel._ However much he wanted to move forward though, that one thing from earlier still bothered him. "If I may ask, what was it that Cerberus did to your people to make you hate them so much?"

"Oh, that," she said in a flat tone. Turning back in the direction they were headed, she muttered loudly enough to hear, "Nothing personal. They just kidnapped and killed the crew of one of our frigates, used it to storm aboard one of our cruisers, and nearly destroy it." Before he could respond, she looked back and snapped out, "Are you two coming? Or are you going to gawk at the alien all day?"

Sighing to himself, Harry caught up, with Jacob beside him. _Well, there goes all the progress we've made. And who did I exactly sign up with? From the sound of it, they're just a group of terrorists. Heh, space muggle death eaters. Never saw that one coming. _

-oo-

For the second time, a silence descended on the group. Tali steadfastly refused to look back at the other two, nor waiting for them to catch up. Jacob seemed to oblige her, not drawing any attention to himself. Of that, Harry was glad to oblige him. Not wanting to be reminded of the previous conversation, he merely fingered his wand and continued to follow their irate guide.

Suddenly she slowed down, holding a three fingered hand up to stop them. "Wait," she said, "We're about twenty seven meters away." Pointing behind yet another metal gate, she continued. "Right over there, probably in some sort of command pod structure. And considering the way Veetor has been acting, I expect that the rest of the mechs are waiting in there."

Harry nodded to her. "So, heavy fire. And lots and lots of robots." Pausing, gazed past the opening. "So, we just going to wade through there and destroy everything we can see?"

Tali shrugged. "Pretty much. Unless you want to do that trick again that you did with with the dogs earlier?"

"If they're shooting at us? I won't be able to." Seeing her odd look, he explained. "I have to concentrate if I do that. So if they're shooting, I would be exposed, and probably get hit." He couldn't help but insert under his breath, "Happened enough times already…"

Apparently, she just seemed to give up her questions. Although when she replied, there was a definite tone of curiosity in her voice. "If you say so. Although, I have to admit that I've never heard of biotics that act like that."

Harry just gave a tight grin. "That's because I'm not a biotic. Come on, let's get this done. We've taken enough time as it is."

Jacob chuckled and unslung his shotgun from the small of his back. "Bout time. Never thought you two would quit it."

Rolling his eyes, Harry began to edge around the corner. His eyes widened at the large group of mechs clustered in a courtyard. The nearest cover for any of them beyond was a small pile of crates a good three yards in. Quietly, he spoke to the others. "Alright, on my mark, head to the nearest cover. I'll keep them distracted."

Jacob simply nodded towards him, taking a deep breath. Tali at first acquiesced, but then seemed to realize something. "Wait, where's your gun?"

Harry just grinned. "Don't need one." He eyed a group of mechs slightly separate from the group. _That'll do. _Slowly counting down from three, incanted _Reducto_ once again. As the beams of light flew towards the mechs, he finally shouted out, "Mark!"

As the quarian and the human broke cover, the beams of light impacted on the small cluser of mechs. Three of the LOKI's were immediately torn to shreds, falling to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The rest of the mechs turned towards the source of the fire. LOKI's raised their pistols and FENRIS began to charge. However, a flurry of light hammered their position, most scoring at least pockmarks. One of the dogs had its electrical head blown clean off by the light. The rest had relatively minor wounds, with the armor merely dented or an extraneous limb damaged.

By this point in time though, the other two in the squad had gotten into position and began to contribute to the fight. Jacob began poking out from his side, laying potshots into the nearest mechs with his shotgun. Eventually, a pair of the FENRIS decided they would chase after him, and streaked towards his corner. Suddenly, Harry noticed that he was surrounded by this odd blue mist. A ball of dark light reupted from one of his hands and slammed into the ground between the dogs. Angry electronic snarls turned into scared electronic whines as they began to float away from the ground.

_Interesting. So that is biotics. _Watching the two mechs sail off over the side, he just shook his head. _Now he's copying me._ Still, Harry just continued his tactic of popping out and laying a few Reductor curses for cover. It was as effective as anything else that was thrown at the mechs.

For all that he tried to confuse the mechs, Tali was easily outpacing him. Before introducing them to the business end of her shotgun, she threw out a small hovering robot projecting a purple field. Said drone seemed to take great care to shock all of the other mechs in the faceplate. _I wonder if that is just the way that she programmed it, or if it is actually listening to her orders to 'go for the optics'?_

At this point, the battle seemed to be going swimmingly. However, a rumble issued behind the main line of mechs. Nearest to the pod, a giant metallic box stood up, unfurling itself into an even larger mech. It gazed around the battlefield, before locking onto the small drone that continued to harass the smaller LOKI's. It raised its left arm, which blossomed and revealed a barrel inside. Without warning, a rocket flew out and towards the drone, instantly demolishing it. This had the side effect of knocking over every other mech within ten feet of the drone.

Harry turned and focused all of his curses at the new mech. While ever curse that was hit was sufficient to destroy any of the smaller mechs, it merely dented the thick armor of the larger ones. For his trouble, the mech focused on him. This time, the arm on the right side blossomed open. Large caliber rounds flying at a fraction of the speed of light poured out, ripping out chunks of the wall Harry was taking cover behind.

Once the barrage had ended, Harry shouted, "Jacob, what is that bloody thing‽"

Jacob quickly answered, "It's a YMIR mech! Very heavily armored, and you saw what it can do. It's one tough son of a bitch to take down! Usually, you need heavy weapons to make a scratch!"

Harry's answer was cut off by another barrage of bullets. Again, another hole was cut out of the wall. Taking advantage of it, he returned fire with a few more curses, keeping its attention off of the other two. However, through this new whole, he spied two large shapes plodding towards them. "I think we have two more incoming!"

"Stubborn bosh'tets don't know when to quit! Potter!" Harry turned to face her, still ducking behind a pile of steel crates. "I can hack into one of their systems, but I need you to keep distracting them!"

"Distract?" _I can think of a few ways._ "Alright, can do." He peered over through the slit again, as the YMIR paused between rounds. _There's no cover on that side, but that pod looks like its open from this angle. _Memorizing both of the locations, he breathed deeply, exhaled, and spun on his feet.

After being squeezed through that tight rubber tube for a time that felt as short as eternity, he was on the other side, with the backs of the three large mechs in front of him. Shaking off the momentary feeling, he raised his wand and fired off a few more of the Reductor curses. While they didn't accomplish any damage, they did succeed in attracting all three of the mech's attention. As they slowly turned around, Harry thought of his chances. His spells were doing no more damage than they would to a troll, and they would easily cut him in half. He was tempted to shout at Tali to hurry up, but knew that was no use. _Well, I suppose if I can't fight, I should make it so they can't fight either._

As the trio finally faced him, he immediately snapped up and tried three different spells. At the furthest, he cast _Petrificus Totalus_. All six arms raise, and the left ones all blossom. At the second, he cast _Incarcerous_. Each of the arms began to fire a rocket in perfect synchronization. At the one closest to Jacob and Tali, he used _Tarantallegra._ The rockets sped towards him, smoke billowing out.

He spun in place.

As he reappeared in the pod that was not five feet to his right, dust exploded from where the rockets impacted the wall behind him. As it slowly fell to the ground, Harry watched the three robots. He couldn't help but to grin at the one awkwardly shuffling around, arms waving as the servos attempt to keep it upright. However, the one ensnared by the Body-Bind remained bound for no more than fifteen seconds, and the one covered in rope shrugged said bindings off. Still, it was enough time, as he saw Tali stand up with her omnitool alight.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Suddenly, sparks emanated from one of the YMIR. It slowly turned toward the other one not flailing about, and began to unload rounds into it. When it sensed the threat, the second YMIR raised its own cannons, and the two traded shots at point blank range. Sparks flew as the cannons tore through the armor and into the systems of the mechs, until one fell to its knees. The first YMIR simply stood there, gutted but not quite inoperable.

While Jacob pumped rounds into the flailing YMIR, Tali still stood with her omnitool out, as a red light began glowing. She shook her head and punched a few more holographic buttons. The sparks intensified around the YMIR that survived, as it raised its left arm and placed it in the gaping hole in its belly.

No sound is made as a rocket fired into its metal body, tearing the mech in twain. It collapsed onto the ground, lights slowly fading.

Harry had by this point joined Jacob, and thusly launched spell upon spell at the YMIR. No matter what, no more than a crack appeared in its reinforced frame. He saw Tali turn to face the last mech. She flicked a button on her shotgun while she strode over as the weapon started to glow red. As Tali got as close as she could, she raised her shotgun, and fired.

A red bolt of what appeared to be pure fire shot out at the YMIR, crashing into its head unit. A crack appeared in the frame, before an explosion ripped the head from the rest of the body. As it did, the mech seemed to suffer even further from spasms. It began to flail wildly, acting like a chicken with its head cut off. In the midst of of its decapitation induced dilemna, one arm swung out and clocked Tali up the side of her head.

As it did, Harry, leapt out of the window of pod. And as he did, Jacob also began to run towards the downed quarian. However, the last unit started to issue a series of beeps as red lights flashed in its body. Harry only needed to take one look at Jacob to realize what exactly that mean. He waved the soldier off and ran as fast as he could towards her. The beeping got faster. He wouldn't reach fast enough. Harry turned in place.

He was next to her. The beeping became a shrill tone.

_Expecto Ferrous Arx_

-oo-

As the dust settled from the explosion, Jacob peered around the corner. He expected to see the bodies charred, or maybe still burning. Maybe if they were lucky Tali's suit would protect her. What he did not expect was Harry to be on the ground with Tali untouched, with a gray barrier surround them. Put aside his surprise, he ran forward to check on the two. "Harry, Zorah, are you two alright?"

"Yeah, Jacob, we're fine." Harry coughed after inhaling some of the dust. "Relatively, at least. Did that thing have a bloody nuke in it?"

Jacob couldn't help but chuckle. "No, but I think they designed it so people think they did." He offered Harry his hand. "Come on, we're almost done."

Taking the hand up, immediately turned back towards their other companion. "Are you alright, Zorah?"

Still somewhat stunned, it took her a moment to clear her head. "Keelah… I believe so. No injuries, no suit breaches." Turning to face Harry, she asked, "Not to be rude, but Keelah, what are you?" Misinterpreting his and Jacob's mutual glance, she backpedaled slightly. "I don't mean anything bad. It's just that, when I had asked for a distraction, I just expected covering fire, something to get their attention. Not teleporting, or creating ropes out of thin air, or whatever you did to that YMIR…"

Shaking his head, he just softly replied. "Well, if you're wondering, I'm still completely human." Trying to dodge the question, he said, "Although, I noticed that you still followed through on your plan either way."

At that, she huffed and crossed her arms. "I _did_ say that every human I worked with was insane. So I'll admit I was expecting something out of the ordinary. But this… This is beyond anything I've seen."

Harry sighed. _Well, Cerberus pretty much knows. And if they were honest, they couldn't find any other wizards, so no one to harm. Plus, no one has come after me yet…_ "Well, if you want the simple answer. I'm a wizard."

Tali just looked at him for a few seconds. "Really…" At his continued stare, without a grin on his face, her eyes began to widen. "Really? You're telling the truth?" At his nodded, her voice became sarcastic. "Pardon me if I don't believe you right off the bat. It's completely illogical"

That made him grin. "Well, then you understand the first thing about magic, Ms. Zorah. And the only logical thing about it."

She just glared at him. "You know, I am still debating on whether you're an insane biotic, or telling the truth and just crazy instead."

Harry chuckled at that. "I'm pretty sure you'll get the chance to pick apart exactly what it is I do." This time, he leaned down and offered her his hand. "Now are ye ready to go finish this mission finally?"

Her hand grasped his, squeezing a bit more than necessary. "Yes. I'm quite ready." After he pulled her up, she checked her shotgun, sliding out a glowing red brick while sliding a new white one in its place.

As they turned to walk to the the pod, Tali asked, "Potter. Why'd you do it?" Harry looked back at her somewhat confused. She lowered her eyes. "Why'd you come back and save me? You're Cerberus."

Harry just smiled gently. "I've been told many a time that I have a saving people thing. Last I checked, you're people, aren't you?" He gestured her on. "Come on, Ms. Zorah."

Tali stared up towards space for a few seconds. "Potter… Harry?" Again, Harry looked back. "It's Tali. I owe you that much."

"Ok, Ms. Tali. Let's go get Veetor."

-oo-

As they entered the pod, Harry was nearly overwhelmed by the amount of amber holograms were up. _Ok, it was cool at first, but do they really need it all in the same color? And are the displays in monochrome?_ Shrugging, he followed Tali towards the sole inhabitant of the pod. As she walked up, she called out his name a few times. Yet he never responded.

"Monsters coming. Mechs will protect. No, swarms. Safe from swarms. Hiding here. Yes, safe. Safe safe safesafe…"

Jacob turned his head towards Tali. "I think we need to distract him. He can't hear any of us."

Nodding to him, Tali raised her arm and activated her omnitool. Sweeping it over the monitors, they blinked off one by one. After a few moments, Veetor apparently recognized they were gone, and that someone was behind him. His eyes widened when he saw the trio.

"Humans. And… and a quarian? How did they not find you? Where did you hide?"

Tali immediately responded, "Who, Veetor? Who didn't find us?"

The shaken quarian stuttered out a response. "The monsters. The… the swarms. They took the humans. All the humans."

At this, Harry spoke up. "How did they get everyone Veetor. Did no one fight back? Did no one try to resist?"

Veetor, a bit more strongly, explains. "You don't know. You didn't see. But I saw everything."

At this, he activated the terminals again. Footage began to play. Scratchy and grainy, but still visible. Swarms of weird insects flew about, as insect like aliens escorted floating pods. Immediately, the hairs on the back of Harry's neck raised. _This isn't normal_.

Before anyone asked, the scared quarian explained. "The… the swarms. No one could hide from them. Anywhere. And once they found you. They froze you. And then… the monsters took you."

Jacob raised his hand to his head, shaking it. "This is bad. If everyone is gone… Everyone… There were over nine hundred thousand here on the colony. And if no one was missed…"

Harry's mind whirled with the possibilities. "You could do a lot with over a million prisoners…" Looking Veetor square in the eye, he asked, "Is there anything else you collected? Anything at all?"

He brought up his omnitool immediately, and pressed a few buttons. Small holograms appeared on both Tali's and Jacob's wrists. "Yes. Many readings. Electro-magnetic, dark energy. But, they will be back. They took the people to their ship. Had so many. Must come back for more soon. Will come back for me."

Tali muttered under her breath. "He's not going to get more coherent, he's scared out of his wits." She reached out to him gently, placing a hand on Veetor's shoulder. "Come on Veetor, you're safe now. We'll keep you safe." While his muttering slowed, he wouldn't moved.

Hesitantly, Harry asked, "Tali, I know a way… a spell, to calm him. It's only temporary, but it should be enough until we get out of here."

Tali gazed at him, her bright eyes meeting his. After a few seconds, she nodded. "Alright. I still don't think it'd work, but you've been honest with me so far."

Slowly bringing his wand up, as not to startle Veetor, he waved it in a circular motion about his head while incanting "_Sedo._" A soft blue light fell over the quarian, who slowly stopped mumbling, before looking around.

Immediately taking the opportunity, Tali repeated her words. This time, Veetor heeded her, and she ushered him out the door, Jacob following. Harry almost fell in, before turning back and staring at the screen. It still shone with the images of the creatures.

_An entire colony gone. Nearly a million people. And nobody could even fight back. From the sound of it, without their Shepard, nothing will be able to._

Still, he stared at the images. He knew that this was what he was searching for. What he needed to discover, for his own sake. Could he really go back, now that he knew what they faced? Even if he couldn't help, would he be satisfied without trying?

In the end, he knew his decision.

_Damn. I have to stay. Hermione would shout at me for doing it. Can't help my old saving people thing. Maybe Ginny was right all those years ago. Maybe I'm not going to be happy if I'm not out there, helping people._

_I'm sorry love. I'm not going to be coming home for a long time._

A/N Hello all, Long time no see. Well, I finally have a chapter for you all. I've tarried much to long to start writing. Partly because I put myself on a self imposed schedule, in that I would write other chapters for other stories. And I lost all inspiration for anything before I got inspiration for what I planned to do. Not to mention I wrote a oneshot last week that turned out to be illegal. Funnily enough, second person is not allowed. So all that work went down the crapper.

Anyway, as you can tell, I've gone way off the rails. As every time I tried to get back on, the train jumped the tracks. Ok, that metaphor is a bit tired. But I digress. There are some important things I wanted to point out here, as I am not going to be following specifically the rules of the games. Which means carnage will be back, teammates will have all skills unless it makes sense to acquire in the course of duty, and heat sinks can cool down and may be swapped in an emergency. Which was the original intent. Also, I figured I'll change up the balance a bit. As you can tell, even with all the mechs I threw at our resident wizard and friends, they still went down easy. Even when the YMIR was buffed to nigh invulnerable. I'm hoping to continue that trend, so that we have some more exciting battles. And not curbstomps.

Anyways, enough of my yammering. Thank you for all of your kind reviews, they've been very helpful. Please leave any thoughts on ways I could have done things better, etc. Even if you have to say I was an idiot on something. :D Until next time (hopefully sooner), später!

Edited 2/4/12


	4. An Awakening

Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Mass Effect. If I owned the former, half the time would be spent as the mother of all Thresher Maw, battling hordes of Reapers. And if I owned the latter, there would have been a VS round between Blast-Ended Skrewts and Snorcacks.

Chapter 4 - An Awakening

Harry Potter found himself in a position that he never expected to be in. Working with a bunch of aliens, plus from the sounds of it a _very _subversive group of humans, to prevent the abduction of the human race by other aliens. _Technically, I suppose I'm not working with any of them yet, but I'm pretty sure it will only be a matter of time. _And he had thought that the magical world had shown him everything.

In retrospect, he should have expected to be proven wrong.

Now, he was walking back two of said aliens to see if the rest of their squad had survived. Although, to say they were walking would have been a misnomer for him and his human partner. The two aliens were trotting along at a rather steady gait. In order to match that, he and Jacob had to break out into a near full out run. He tried to shout at the leader of the two between drawing breaths. "Tali, must you… run so… fast?"

The quarian threw a look back at him. Although it was hard to tell, he was sure that she was laughing behind that mask. "Sorry, I forget how slow humans can be at times. I figure we can slow a bit, as I finally got in contact with the squad."

Breathing a sigh of relief that they had slowed down a little bit, Harry replied. "That's good. Did they hold up alright?"

She nodded to him. "From the sounds of it, they did. Only a few more injuries. The shuttle is gone though… No idea what we should do now."

Pulling up beside the two quarians, Jacob turned to her. "Ma'am, we could offer you a ride out of here. Our shuttle has enough room for all your people. It would be cramped, but we could get you off world."

All eyes on her, Tali just shook her head. "No thank you Jacob. As much as I appreciate your help, and Harry's, I don't believe that I could take up the offer for the others. I don't trust Cerberus at all. And the rest of us, even less."

Jacob just shrugged as they turned the corner, crossing another courtyard. "Believe me, I know. But with all due respect, what do you expect to happen if the Alliance finds you here? They've gotten enough flak about sacrificing the fleet to save the other races. There are a lot of humans who think that they're putting alien concerns over human."

"Including Cerberus." Her voice was sharp, but any harshness fell as her shoulder's sagged. "But you're right. We couldn't get the any Migrant Fleet vessels here soon enough. And if we take a ship here, it will be noticed sooner or later." She sighed. "Which means that the only option is to work with you." She suddenly spun around, prodding Jacob with one finger. "There better be no funny business on your end, though."

Jacob held his arms up in surrender. "Trust me, there won't be." Quietly, he pointed out, "Besides, I know there is a doctor on board the nearest Cerberus base who has experience with quarians. Maybe she can help patch you up."

Tali gave him an odd look. "A _Cerberus_ doctor with experience treating quarians? This is getting rather suspicious. How'd you manage to recruit her? And why?"

Jacob scratched the back of his head. "Not easily. And I'm not really supposed to tell…" Receiving no rejoinder, but just narrow eyes, he continued, "But considering who you are, I suppose you should know. She was recruited along with a bunch of other people in preparation for the second phase of Lazarus Project."

Harry gave him a gimlet eye. "Isn't that the project where you… recruited me in?" He ignored the confused looks from the quarians, saying, "I highly doubt that your Illusive Man bothered to assemble a whole boatload of people for my sake."

Jacob just shook his head. "No, you weren't. Although under the auspices of the Lazarus cell, you were brought here by the Faustus Project instead. Remember?"

Grinning sheepishly, Harry nodded. "Yeah, I do now. Sorry, I just had to clarify."

By this point, Tali was gazing back and forth between the two, as the group had come to a halt. "Would you please explain to the quarians here that don't know what you're talking about?"

Glancing at each other, Harry took the lead. "They're codenamed based on human stories. Faust was the story of a many summoning the devil to make a deal with it, at the cost of his soul." Harry blinked, then looked at Jacob, his tone dry. "Funnily enough, I'm the devil in that set up. Maybe I should ask your boss for his soul then."

Nonplussed at Harry, Jacob just said, "I hope you're joking about that… aren't you?"

Harry just nodded shortly. "I am. But it's no laughing matter. There are magics that involve manipulating the soul… And very few are remotely good for the soul in question." Harry looked into the distance. "Trust me on that."

Tali's voice was filled with confusion. "Ok, that did not help in the slightest. But I suppose I shouldn't have expected a straight answer from the likes of you two." At the silence that followed, she just huffed and crossed her arms. "Well? What about the other project?"

Somewhat nervously, Jacob glanced on towards the nearby gate. "Frankly ma'am, we need to get going. We've been standing here long enough. We can explain later."

Huffing, she grabbed Veetor by the shoulder and ushered him on. "I can see that you don't want to tell. But remember, I'll hold you to that." With that, she stormed off towards the gate.

Jacob muttered under his breath. "Definitely more feisty than the reports implied."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You know of her?"

He nodded as the two hurried to catch up to the running quarians. "Yes, I do. She was one of Commander Shepard's squad mates, two years ago. Since we were working on him, we kept files on her." He looked at the distant aliens. "Definitely changed from what they said."

Understanding dawned on Harry. "So that's why you don't want to tell her. You're afraid she'll flip out?"

"Yes, I think so. Unless we had a Shepard here, or at least see what we're doing… I think she would freak, to put it lightly."

Shooting him a look, Harry said, "You know, _I_ think you're mad for what you're trying to do. Much less the other quarians."

Jacob just scoffed under his breath, "Sometimes, I think we are too."

By this point, the pair had come up to their two quarians, huddled up in one of the pods. Tali had begun talking to one of the other quarians, whom was holding his side. Harry and Jacob quickly made their way to hearing distance, where the other quarian was gesturing wildly. "-mechs got us while we were still loading the shuttle. Most of us were able to get away, but…"

"But what?" Tali threw her hands up in the air. "You said on the radio that everything was find. Who was it? Prazza?"

The first quarian just nodded. "Yes, it was. He was the on who covered the wounded while we moved. But with the two YMIRs on him…"

Tali had frozen in mid gesture, but eventually relaxed, arms drooping. "Stubborn bosh'tet. He just ran out and started engaging them, didn't he?" At the quarians nod, she sighed. "Damn it. As much of an idiot he was, I suppose I can't say he lacked for courage. Come on, show me him."

At that, Tali and Veetor followed the other quarian into one of the pods. Concernedly, Harry glanced at Jacob, saying, "Should we follow them?"

Jacob just shrugged in return. "Probably. But it's you're call. We need to wait until they're ready to go anyways."

Nodding, Harry followed them inside. Ducking into the low light, he found himself facing a guard with his assault rife out, but not pointed at him. At spotting the two humans, said guard turned to the back of the pod and called out, "Ma'am, those two humans from earlier are here. Should I let them pass?"

After a few seconds, Tali called back, "Yes, Kul, they can come back. They've been straight with me so far."

The other quarian just nodded. "Yes, ma'am." At that, he stepped aside, letting Harry and Jacob by. The pair hurried through, finding Tali and the first quarian with her. Another lay partially obscured on a table. Cautiously, Harry walked over to them, taking care not to disturb the two in the slightest. Before he could see the other quarian, Tali spoke. "I know you're there, no use being quiet. Prazza's almost gone; he took too much fire."

Harry stared at the back of her head, surprised at the apathetic tone. "Are you sure there's nothing that you can do?"

She just shrugged, barely acknowledging him. "Not really. He took a ton of rounds to his gut, messed him up real bad. Those YMIR mechs don't mess around." She looked down, eyes boring into a spec on the side of the table. "We did what we could with medigel, though there was major damage to his organs. Even if there wasn't, so much of his interior was exposed to the air, he'll probably succumb to the infection soon."

At this, Prazza coughed and actually managed to turn his head. Two eyes shined up at Harry, lacking the raging animosity that lingered in them earlier. "Heh, it doesn't matter. I would rather die from my wounds on the field than from an infection in the ward…" He coughed again, wheezing in another breath. "But your concern is… appreciated, Cerberus."

The other quarian took the lull in the conversation to speak up. "It's a wonder that he lasted as long as he has. But all we can do now is make him as comfortable as he can be, before…"

A silence fell over them, with the quarians turning back to observe their wounded. _Well, I don't know what medigel is, nor about why an infection is that dangerous… They wouldn't crop up fast enough, at least I don't think… Who knows? I can still help him, I think._ Placing his hand on Tali's shoulder, he matched her sudden glare, simply saying "Trust me on this." Eventually receiving a reluctant nod, he moved her to the side, looking down at Prazza.

The quarian's body was a mess, with torn suit patches surrounding wounds that had been clogged with a kind of goo. However, blood had began to leak from around the many entry wounds, shades darker than what he was used to seeing. Looking in the quarian's eyes, he asked, "I can do something that might help you. I don't know if it will work. If it does, you'll be fine. If not, you're no worse off than you were before. Will you let me try?"

Prazza looked up at him, eyes still holding the barest of suspicion, before he turned away. "Do it."

Harry nodded to him, before withdrawing his wand. Ignoring the questions that began to inundate him, he focused on the body. Raising his wand, he breathed in deeply, before exhaling. _Reparo homo._

White light began to flow out of the tip of the wand, sinking into the chest of the alien before him. It slowly began to spread, filling in each and every wound. Prazza arced his back as the magic began to do its duty. Yet, something was pushing back, something inside did not want the magic. The spreading of the light eventually slowed, then stopped.

This spell was a unique spell as it relied on one thing, power. While there are many other spells that could quickly and efficiently close wounds, knit together muscle, and reassemble destroyed organs, those took time and study, as well as a degree of finesse. This spell, this spell was different. It didn't matter how much medical acumen you had, nor how skilled you were in wand waving. It only depended on how much pure magical energy you poured in. It was horribly inefficient, and healed poorly for how much energy you poured in. Yet it was simple, effective, and it always got the job done.

In other words, perfect for one Harry Potter.

Yet, something inside the quarian wanted to resist the spell. It pushed out wards, rejecting the magic as it would reject a bad organ. The man's will was strong. Suicidally strong. Yet Harry's was stronger. He slowly forced the body to accept it, pushing more and more magic energy to make it acceptable. The glow started to spread once more, seeping under the seams of the environmental suit. Eventually, it reached the helmet, covering the face of the quarian as his eyes became lost in healing light. Seconds passed by, as the magic seeped through the body, searching and destroying every last infection. Repairing every single deficiency and injury there was to be found.

But there are a near infinite number of things that could always be better about a person, alien or human. And before the spell could fix it all, something else happened.

Harry's magic ran out.

In the blink of an eye all the light withdrew back into Harry's wand. Prazza slowly slumped back to the table, his breathing hurried but unhindered. Harry teetered precariously, wand coming loose and slipping to the floor. Nearly drunkenly, he spoke, "J..Jacob? I think I'm going to need a… a nap. Somebody catch me?"

The pod turned black, and Harry fell to his knees. He slowly toppled over, before spotting two pinpricks of light in the darkness. Then, a rushing sound enveloped him as the darkness overcame the light.

-oo-

A glimmer of light shined in the dark. No more than a pinprick in the distance, it slowly became brighter and brighter. The golden hue of the light was very familiar. _A snitch? Here? Maybe it all has been a dream. _It hovered just out of focus, and his arms simply refused to reach up and grasp it. Slowly, one of Harry's hands began to respond, inching closer to the golden light.

"Ah, I see you're awake. Welcome back, Mr. Potter."

Harry stopped at the words, before blinking rapidly. The world swam back into focus, the golden light revealing it to be instead the orange glow of an omnitool. Its user, an older lady, was tapping a few buttons on it as she stood over him. Shaking her head, she looked down at the wizard. "I'm surprised Mr. Potter. It's not too often that I'm shown something new. If it wasn't for the word of Tali'Zorah, I would have thought that you were doing something rather illicit."

His wits coming back together, Harry raised a hand to his head. Rubbing said cranium, he eyed the woman. "If you say so… But where am I?" He looked around, taking in the sterile white and gray room. _I've got a sudden bad feeling about this._

Almost sensing his fears, the woman gave him a small grin. "You're in the med bay on the _Normandy_, Mr. Potter." At the ensuing groan, her smile broadened even farther. "As such, it has been my pleasure to run a battery of tests on you. However, there's not much I can find wrong with you, besides the fact that you're tired."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, magic exhaustion does that to you…" Lying there for a few seconds, his eyes widened when he remembered exactly why he was magically exhausted. "Wait, what happened to the other quarians? And Tali, and Jacob?"

The doctor laid a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Mr. Potter, they are all well." Pausing to reconsider the statement, she rectified, "For most senses of the word, at least. The quarians are doing well enough for being stuck on a Cerberus vessel at the moment. Although, I've got a few others in here for observation." At that, she waved a hand towards the back, where a few more bodysuit-clad forms lay resting.

Eyes narrowing, at the word Cerberus, Harry probed a bit more. "Another Cerberus ship? Have I been out that long?"

"About three hours, give or take the time it took to get you here." She pressed a few more keys on her omnitool, raising his bed slightly. "From the stories I've heard in the meantime, it was quite a feat for Mr. Taylor to get the quarians to cooperate. Fortunately, having so many wounded, and no shuttle available, there wasn't too much of an argument." Raising the tool to do another scan over Harry, she kept speaking. "It helped a lot when Tali found out that I was the one taking care of the wounded."

Harry cocked his head. "Why is that, Madam…?"

Snapping out of her mutterings, she looked back at Harry. "Oh, sorry, Mr. Potter. I'm Dr. Chakwas. Former Alliance Medical doctor, served with Commander Shepard for his last tour of duty, as it were… Although I suppose that doesn't mean much to you, does it?"

He shrugged. "Not particularly." Staring at the wall as she continued testing, he asked, "But I do know a little about Shepard. You said you served with him though?" He turned his head back, tilting it quizzically.

Noticing his look, she chuckled to herself. "Not in that way, Mr. Potter. I'm much too old to be out on the battlefield, and I never had the taste for it. No, I'm much happier here patching the heroes who do the hard work back together." Lowering her eyes to her notes, she continued, "Speaking of patching up, what exactly did you do to yourself, Mr. Potter? I've never seen a case quite like this. While you were completely exhausted, my scans indicated that you were perfectly fine at the same time. It's hard to describe, as the only close thing that would be a biotic after he expends a lot of his energy. But even then, they would be starving…"

Seeing that the doctor was going to continue to ramble on, Harry held a hand up to stop her. "I understand, Mada- Doctor. I'm probably just experiencing magical exhaustion." Reaching out with his magic, he felt his wands lying nearby. Taking care, he summoned the two and held them in his hand. "Rather, I was. Still not quite up to snuff."

Raising an eyebrow at his display, Chakwas just sighed and looked at him. "Three years ago, that would have surprised me, but now… Well, I've come to expect everything. But still, that was impressive. Much more controlled than biotics." She glanced down, a bit of a frown marring her face. "Although, I'm still not too sure on how much I believe this whole magic story."

Harry smiled to himself. "Trust me, it was hard to believe when I learned about it. You're taking it better than most. I'm just surprised that my kind seems to have disappeared, especially after such progress."

"Indeed." Curiosity was showing in her eyes, but she turned away. "As much as I would like to chat, Mr. Potter, I'm afraid I need to be keeping an eye on the other patients. Quarians have very… temperament immune systems at times."

Nodding in understanding, he waited a few moments, still getting his bearings together. Eventually, he called out, "Is it alright if I leave? You didn't mention that there was anything wrong with me…"

She sighed, back still to him. "No, I did not find anything in particular. And while I loathe doing so, I've no real reason to keep you here. Just no strenuous activity. Whatever your exhaustion is doing, it did affect your musculature."

_Well, that sounds familiar. Maybe I should make a plaque for one of the beds, just in case?_ Grinning at her, he slid out of the bed, at the same time slipping his wands in a pocket. "Yes ma'am, will do. Just fair warning though, knowing my history, we'll probably seeing a lot of each other."

A somewhat wistful smile graced her face. "If you're anything like Shepard, I believe it. Good day, Mr. Potter."

Turning and walking up to the door, he placed his still gloved right hand on the hologram. Five seconds later, he did so again. Another five seconds later, he sighed, and placed his left one upon it. The hologram whirred and the door slid open. As he walked out, he stared down at the gloved hand. _I wonder why it suddenly decided to stop working. Perhaps my magic just didn't want to cooperate with it? It didn't seem that complex… Well, I'll just get it looked at._

Taking a few steps forward, he looked around, before dropping his head. "Great, I have no clue where exactly I am. Or where to go for that matter. What to do…" Before he picked a random hallway to walk down, a voice sounded above him.

"Excuse me Mr. Potter, but I the Illusive Man has requested that you speak with him on the Command Deck. Take the hallway in front of you and then a right towards the elevator in order to proceed."

Blinking, Harry just looked around. _If this was at Hogwarts, I would have expected a ghost. But here…?_ "Who is there? And what are you?"

The voice spoke again. "I am EDI, the Electronic Warfare AI that has been assigned to this vessel."

_An AI? Could she mean…? Granted, I don't know much about robots and droids and such, but still…_ "So, that means you're robot? The ship?"

The electronic voice issued from the speakers again, the tone tinged with something odd. "Neither, Mr. Potter. I am built into the ship, but I am as much the ship as the pilot is. Less, even, as I have no control over any of the ship's activities. As I said, I am primarily here for electronic warfare purposes."

Shrugging to himself, Harry started walking forwards. _Not that I really know what that means, maybe something to do with hacking computers? Maybe enemy computers? Considering how much they depend on electronics now, that wouldn't be such a bad idea. _As he reached the elevator, which turned out to be barely ten steps from where he started, he asked as it slowly came towards his deck. "Well, EDI, just out of curiosity, where is Jacob at? Or the quarians?"

After a few moments, she replied. "Operative Taylor is on the Command Deck, in the armory. He is busy sorting out various armaments and munitions in preparation for our departure. As for the quarians, they are on the Hanger deck. Or rather, they were. Ms. Zorah was on this deck earlier, observing her squad mates' recovery. She headed back soon after."

"Roger that." Turning back, he stared at the elevator. After a minute, it finally arrived. Walking in, he couldn't help but mutter about how people in the future can't even get elevators to work right. Scanning the buttons, he wondered if he should speak to the quarians first. Considering the way the hated Cerberus, maybe they'd like to put their own two cents in. It didn't help that the voice in the back of his head was telling him he just didn't want to deal with that man right now. _Especially what he's cost me, even if it's the right way to do._

Making up his mind, he pressed the bottom hologram. Before it began moving, EDI's voice chimed in again. "Mr. Potter, the comm room in which the Illusive Man is contacting you is above us. Shouldn't you be heading to speak to him first?"

He just looked towards the ceiling. "Did he request I contact him immediately?"

"Not in so many words, Mr. Potter…"

Harry shrugged. "Well, he can wait a bit longer. Besides, if you know why I'm here, you can understand why I am not quite willing to talk to him yet."

There was no response from the computer, but the elevator began descending. "Understood, Mr. Potter."

-oo-

Stepping out of the elevator, Harry found himself in a cavernous space filled with crates and other storage units. Seeing nothing else, he skirted around the room until he found the remainder of the quarian squad, bandied about a shuttle and another vehicle. Pondering how to approach them, he stood there for a while. Before he could say anything though, their purple leader spotted him.

Shouting "Harry," she waved him over to them. As he took a seat, he saw the other quarians eyeing him warily, but not with the hostility that many had been giving him, and Jacob, earlier. _Can't blame them, really. They're in the lion's den, aren't they? They're still wary I might try something._

Finally breaking the ice, he turned towards their leader and asked, "So, Tali, how did things end up on the planet after I took a dirt-nap?"

Glancing at her squad, she just shook her head. "You might say we had a bit of an argument about where we'd go after. Most of the men wanted to take the shuttle and run. Your Mr. Taylor… Jacob, I mean, offered to shuttle us back to where we could get proper medical treatment, for you and for my injured. We didn't particularly want to head along, but he did point out that you sacrificed your… strength in order to heal Prazza. Whatever _that_ was… And that you could have easily just left him to die."

Harry just looked down, scratching the back of his head. "I could have done that… but didn't I mention I have a saving people's thing? Besides," he turned and looked at the nearest bulkhead, staring at the sigil emblazoned upon it, "it's not like my current _employers_ don't deserve a lot of what's coming for them, according to you."

Murmurs of assent rippled through the squad, but they remained quiet otherwise. "Yes, you did mention it a time or two. It's a bit hard to believe that one of you…" Tali stopped speaking, before looking away herself. "Well, considering that Dr. Chakwas is now one of you, and I know her well enough that she wouldn't do this without a good reason."

One of the others piped up, his semi-synthetic voice oddly higher, "So she decided to give it a chance. Not something that the rest of us would have done, but I suppose her old commander is influencing her."

Glowing eyes snapped around and met another glow. "And that is a bad thing?"

"Not at all, not at all. The quarian seemed to chuckle to himself. "Considering the stories you've told us, he is one of the best allies our kind could have."

Harry just nodded along, following their conversation. When neither of the two replied to the other, he coughed and spoke again. "So, how is Veetor doing? I didn't see him in the med bay, so I didn't know if you had him someplace else."

Tali reached behind her and thumped the bulkhead of the shuttle. "He's in there, asleep. After being awake for so long, he was about to pass out. It's why we're all here, and why Cel'Eb is keeping watch inside. Just in case."

Harry nodded towards her, eyes watching the shuttle. "That's a good idea. After all that he's seen… Well, it will be a long while before he'll be able to have a sound sleep, to put it nicely."

"Agreed." Tali sighed, before asking, "So, what was it that you did to him? That was more… magic?"

Seeing the curious looks he was getting, Harry just shrugged, trying to make it seem as no big deal. "Yeah, it was. Just like the whole conjuring rope out of thin air was magic."

The same quarian as earlier spoke up. "Conjuring ropes out of thin air? What madness is this? Are you sure he's not just a biotic with some really fancy slight of hand?"

Another aggravated sigh. "I'm quite sure, unless you're suggesting that this biotic who is not also has a super medigel that was able to heal Prazza so easily." Receiving no answer, she huffed behind her helmet. "Exactly. But even if you don't believe, I still want to hear."

Shrugging again, he said, "Well, I don't actually remember which spell I cast, so maybe you remember what I said?"

Tali just cocked her head. "You said something to the effect of Ripearoe Hoemoe. It didn't exactly translate, so I can't tell you what it means, if it means anything."

Understanding came to his eyes as she spoke. "Ah, I see. So it was that spell… Well, that was a bloody great idea." Seeing that they were waiting for him to continue, he did so. "Basically, I brute forced it, I believe. It's a spell to heal humans, as it literally means fix human. So on a quarian…"

Tali's eyes widened. "It wouldn't be nearly as effective as otherwise?"

Harry was about to agree, until something jogged in his memory. "Not quite… If I remember correctly, it shouldn't work on anyone who isn't a human. But I suppose that isn't really the case, is it?" Receiving just a snort in reply, he continued to muse. "I suppose that I never considered the healing a human part. I was too busy on trying to get him to heal. That's probably why it drained me so."

Looking a bit lost, Tali asked "So, what matters is the intent? Or is it another of your weird magic rules?"

"Well, I could believe that, if it wasn't for the fact that the spell matters too…" He shrugged. "All I can tell is that I forced a round peg through a square hole, and got it to fit."

Staring at him for a few minutes, Tali eventually just scoffed to herself. "Crazy humans… You know that doesn't make a lick of sense, don't you?"

Harry simply grinned. "I know. But remember what's the only logical thing about magic?" All he received in reply was a glare.

After a half minute of rather tense minute, she ventured out, "So, Harry, what is it that brings you down here to visit us?"

Shrugging noncommittally, Harry replied, "It was either this, or talk to the Illusive Man. Since Chakwas mentioned that you knew her, and reminded me what they did to you, thought it'd be better to come check. Besides," he grinned, "thought that you may want the chance to give a personal talking-to to their leader."

Tali stilled and looked at Harry, a gleam in her eyes. "Oh, that sounds like _fun_…" Her filtered voice growled, "Is he here in person? I'd like to do much more than simple conversation, though."

_Note to self, never tick off the quarians. _"I'm not quite sure if he is, but the first time he contacted me, it was through one of those holograms." He could almost see the pout that covered her face behind that opaque mask.

Another of the quarians interjected, "I will admit, this is rather odd. For being one of Cerberus, you're treating us rather nicely. Granted, _nobody_ has done more than anything but cast a few looks at us, but still, it's rather odd." The other quarians merely nodded along with him.

Harry was quiet for a second, before offering, "True. But did Tali show you exactly why Veetor was holed up in that pod down on that planet?" At their hesitant affirmations, he continued. "That's the only reason I'm with them, is to stop that. Besides… I didn't exactly volunteer for this. I was shanghaied." At that, he finally stood up, stretching his arms out. "Well I think I need to head up and speak to him. Even if I rather wouldn't… You coming?"

Nodding and sliding to her feet, she began to walk over to the elevator. "Sure. It's not like they haven't bugged the ship enough to find out what we think about them already, so might as well say it to his face."

"Alright then, let's see what that man wants."

As the two left and proceeded to wait for the elevator to return to their floor, the other quarians looked at each other. "So, really believe what he's saying about that magic?"

"Not really. But Zorah pointed out, it's either that or a biotic that has access to some super medigel."

"Well, the humans did invent medigel in the first place. Who's to say that they hadn't improved it already?"

"It would be nice to believe that it's magic though. Maybe he could help us if it is."

"Maybe he could. But he's Cerberus. And besides, the only ones we can trust to help our people are ourselves. We don't have any biotics, so the only thing that is going to help defend us are our own sweat, tears, and bullets."

"Either way, I wish that we could not believe, if even for a little while, that there is no such thing as magic."

"I know Kul. I know."

-oo-

Finally situated in the elevator after waiting several minutes for it to arrive, the pair was slowly making its way back up. Harry found himself leaning on the back, watching the level indicator on the holographic buttons slowly ascend. Feeling eyes on the back of his head, he turned towards the watching Tali. "So, was there something you wanted to ask me?"

Suddenly averting her eyes at being caught, she shrugged, before stuttering out. "N-not really. I was just curious at what exactly you could do. I mean after seeing everything earlier today, I was wondering more you can do."

Harry stroked his chin. "Well, I could just say that it's magic, and leave it at that… But I'd rather not have to face you gun again so soon." Receiving a very satisfied chuckle, he just grinned. "What I used earlier in the mission were mostly Reductor Curses. It's a very standard spell; I learned it back when I was still in school."

Tali tilted her head curiously then. "That implies that you know better… spells. Keelah, I still can't believe I'm seriously discussing this. But in that case, why not use something more… Advanced, I suppose?"

He just shrugged in reply. "Why not? It worked on everything but those hulking big robots. I don't see a reason to break out bigger and flashier spells to for the basic enemies. As for the larger ones, I really didn't feel the need. They may have been large, but were pretty slow." His grin grew a bit wider. "Especially when you can apparate behind them and fire at their backside."

"Apparate? You mean that teleporting thing?" He nodded to her, and her eyes widened. "So you seriously mean that was teleporting? Not some weird biotic movement?"

At that, Harry cocked an eyebrow. "Weird biotic movement? That sounds like something you'd get after eating bad Mexican." He shivered. "The nightmares…"

She tilted her head. "Mexican?" Harry just shook his head, refusing to explain. "Ok… must be a weird Earth thing. But anyways, some biotics have the power to use their abilities to alter their own mass, and propel themselves at high velocity. It's the only explanation that I could think of. Unless you happen to be some sort of advanced human from the future."

Harry couldn't help but laugh. "Is being just a wizard truly that unbelievable? And besides, I told you, I retired nearly two hundred years ago." Her frustrated growl amused him even more._ "_If I remember correctly, there was principle saying that the simplest answer was the best."

She just glared at him. "Maybe there is a human one that says as such. I can't recall a quarian one in the same vein, however. Even if there was, saying that you are two hundred years old and still relatively young when humans only have a hundred and fifty year lifespan is hardly a simple answer." She tapped a finger on her mask. "Anyways, back on subject. I suppose a true analysis of what you could do would take quite a while to perform. Some of what you perform would be of great advantage to the fleet if replicated. Although, for magic, I expected it to be more impressive."

Harry just snorted. "Oh, magic can be flashy. I suppose I could have frozen them solid and shattered them. Or I could have used concentrated hellfire to burn them into ashes. Or a dozen more powerful and lethal curses. But I would prefer to use what's merely effective. And to cause as little collateral damage as possible. Just because it's not flashy doesn't mean it's magic."

Tali eventually nodded agreement and sighed. I suppose you're right. After all, quarians have been making do with whatever we have for the past three hundred years. It's not like we have the resources to be extravagant."

"Three hundred years?" Harry had his curiosity piqued now. _Well, I suppose I do know virtually nothing about her race. Or any of them. Jacob only spent time talking about how to kill them. Mostly, at least. _

Looking away, the quarian sighed. "I forget that you don't know about my species. You seem way too used to our presence already."

"I did say that I knew plenty of other species."

"Yet you also said that you never met another alien 'til today."

He nodded. "Yup."

"You know I'm only humoring you because you're insane."

Harry just shrugged. "Oh, trust me, I'm used to that." At that point, the doors on the elevator finally slid open. "And we're finally here. Either this thing is huge, or this is the slowest elevator I've ever been on." He stepped out, looking for the communication room. Realizing that it was the one straight in front of him, he walked forward, opening it up with his one operational glove.

Breaking the silence that had plagued them for the past minute, Tali asked, "Harry?" He turned to face her. "I understand why you feel you need to go through with this, but why work for Cerberus? Couldn't you go to the Alliance with this? Since you worked for them before…"

Harry shook his head. "I never worked for the Tali. I worked for the government, but never the Alliance. And I know bearcats. They never change, and they never will. If even a tenth of what they say is true, I have to go through with this." He looked her in the eyes. "Besides, you knew Dr. Chakwas, and she's working for them too. Would she have done that if she wasn't serious?"

Tali could only reply, "No. But still, it doesn't seem right, in either case. What are they up to, to go to all this effort?"

_I forgot, she doesn't know about Shepard… Granted, I don't know much either. But it does look suspicious, I suppose. Especially if they served together… Maybe she's connecting the dots._ "A really big something is what they're up to. I was their Plan B, after all. Which is why they kidnapped me."

"Kidnapped‽" Tali's eyes widened. "Wait, you said that you were shanghaied. What exactly does that mean? It doesn't really translate."

_So that's why there wasn't much of a reaction._ "Essentially, shanghaiing is when someone is kidnapped and impressed to serve on the crew of a ship. It felt particularly appropriate to use, in that case."

Still rather confused, she asked, "Then _why_ are you helping them? Especially in that case?"

Harry sighed, his voice somewhat despondent. "Mostly because it's the right thing to do. For the sake of the people that were kidnapped, and the ones that might be kidnapped…" He trailed off. "And he has the only way I can get home."

At that, he entered the room and waited for something to happen. As it darkened and holograms began to appear, he walked further in, an irate quarian keeping right behind him.

-oo-

"Potter, good to see you back. Well done on Freedom's Progress. It was… Illuminating, seeing one of your kind in action."

The scratchy hologram stared at him, pointedly ignoring the presence of Tali'Zorah. "On the other hand, it was somewhat worrisome expending so much effort to keep that quarian alive. I didn't bring you in our time just to watch you sacrifice yourself to spare the life of one who obstructed you so vehemently."

Pressing his fingers into his temple, Harry slowly replied. "And? If you know anything about me from those books you discovered, you know exactly who I am. And I am not going to let someone up and die when I can do something about it."

The hologram leaned onto its hand, pointedly ignoring the death glare being sent his way. "I am quite aware, actually. It was part of why you were selected, after all. You are very similar to Shepard, both in combat effectiveness and… attitude." He paused, taking a drag from his cigarette. "To that end, I suppose it would have been expected. Ms. Zorah, when she has not been glaring or ranting at me, did provide us with her copy of the data. While there was nothing much of value to be learned, they did willing provide it. Quite unexpected in actuality."

At that, Tali had enough. "So, you'll insult my people and my squad in one breath, and then compliment us for our generosity in the next? What game are you playing at?"

"No game, Ms. Zorah." He finally turned to face her, his mechanical eyes whirring as he studied her. "Or rather, every game. Do I have any love for the quarians? No. Do I have any hate for them? No. Simply, I do not care."

She scoffed. "That much is obvious. Especially since you hijacked the _Cyniad_ and used it to assault the _Idenna_. All so you could get your hands on one human biotic. What would you call that?"

His gaze met hers for a moment, before leaning back in his chair. "It was just bad business, Ms. Zorah. Something that I had invested in had gotten loose, and I wished to reap my investment. And I never proved of their methods, but only their intentions. It was… unnecessary for them to go to the lengths that they had."

Tali just crossed her arms and stared him down. "It certainly was. And considering the number of Cerberus cells we busted with Shepard two years ago, you've had plenty of other projects that go to those same lengths."

"Ms. Zorah, I will have you know that everything we do is for humanity's future. We take humanity's best and brightest, and give them the chance to shine. And unfortunately, some of those are not culled from society's best. So, unfortunately, we will have accidents. But even in these accidents, there is something to learn."

He turned away from the quarian before she could speak again, and focused on Harry. "Now, Mr. Potter, back to what we are here to discuss. The data provided both by Operative Taylor and Ms. Zorah both confirmed that an alien race is kidnapping, or killing our civilians. More importantly, they are the Collectors."

Tali's eyes widened momentarily, before speaking. "Collectors? Last I heard, they were nothing more than a myth. Showing up every few decades to do business with the Terminus Systems."

"Hardly myths Ms. Zorah." He took another drag from his cigarette. "The Collectors are quite really. Incidentally, you know of the quarian behind the crisis in the Migrant Fleet? He was exiled due to his attempts to sell _quarians_ to the Collectors."

_That would explain the name, wouldn't it?_ "So, why is this so notable? And was this one of the scenarios you expected?"

He nodded shortly, before answering. "Indeed. And it is because that they usually operate covertly, taking a small number of samples with them. Twin krogan, oddly hued asari, turians with unusual crests. And now, humans." His hologram looked down, staring at an unseen object. "They have never taken in such large numbers though. They are up to something. But now that we know who are behind the attacks, we can take steps to stop them. Discover what they are attempting to do. And possibly even save the colonists."

That last sentence miffed Harry, who looked at the hologram with narrowed eyes. "In that order, then?"

The hologram folded his hands together. "Mr. Potter, I can understand your desire to save them. Realistically though, we have no reason to expect them to be alive by the time we discover the Collector's home. I hope they are, but for now I'm working with the assumption that they will not be."

Harry sighed. "Well, is there anything we can do? Or are we just waiting until they attack again?"

"For the moment? The latter. We cannot go blindly charging in. However, I have other teams working on this threat, in order to conclude it as soon as is humanely possible."

Tali chose that moment to opine, "Perhaps if you had other races to help you, it would be done faster."

The hologram cut its eyes over to her. "Perhaps. Or they may instead slow us down. Either way, we are working on it." It turned to Harry. "As for now, I need you, Mr. Potter, to take command of this vessel. There are a number of individuals to be recruited to help you on your cause. I've already forwarded a number of dossiers to Operative Taylor, who will act as your Executive Officer until Operative Lawson finishes her current duty."

Harry was bemused for a second. Blinking several times, he finally responded. "Wait. You want me to take over a ship? A space ship? I had never even left Earth less than twenty four hours ago, and now you want me in charge?"

A smirk came over the man's face. "In fact, I do. Just because you are… behind the times, doesn't mean you wouldn't be effective. Besides, you wouldn't have to handle any of the operations of the ship. We have the best pilots and engineering crews to take care of that." He paused, gauging Harry. "Unless, of course, you would prefer to be sent back? That was our deal, if you didn't think you were needed…"

Taking a moment to consider it, Harry slowly shook his head. _I would never be able to live with myself if I didn't stay._

At that, the smirk grew just a tiny bit wider. "Good. Now, the only suggestions I will give you are this. Take the quarians back to their fleet, and begin searching for the people I have sought out for you. If they are not willing to let you into the fleet, find a compromise. As soon as Shepard has been revived, we will send word so that you can pick him up, from whence he will assume command, presuming nothing else changes in the meantime. Perhaps by the time this is over, you'll be able to return to your own time." Scanning the two in front of him, the hologram simply said, "Dismissed," and began to fade.

As light began to return to the room, Harry's thoughts were interrupted by his companion's synthesized voice. "What is going on here, Potter? Send back to your own _time?_ As soon as _Shepard_ is _revived?_ Keelah, what is Cerberus doing?" She strode forward and jammed a finger into his chest. "I want answers, Potter. What exactly is going on with you, where you are from, and what all of this has to do with Shepard."

His own eyes widening, Harry held his hands up in defeat. "Alright, alright. I'll explain what I do know. It will take a while though. Quite a while."

Grabbing his robes, she dragged him over and forced him onto the coffee table. "When it comes to this, I have all the time in the fleet. _Especially_ if Shepard is involved."

_Well, look on the bright side old chap. At least she doesn't have her shotgun on her…_ Like I said it's a long story. But to start with me, I was born July 31, in the year 1981, in the United Kingdom."

The resulting silence from that statement was not the longest, nor the last. But silence was pretty much all Tali'Zorah had to say for the next hour.

And then, Harry decided to finally explain about Shepard.

The resulting explosion made him wonder if it had been a mistake.

A/N Howdy all! I'm back, with an update to one of the big three. Sorry it took so long, but this has been sitting around at 3k words for over a month now. I hate it when that happens. But now, I've got it all fixed up and shipshape, I hope. I feel that this is the best way to end this chapter, as I don't want to get into too long and technical discussions of the magic. Not yet, anyways. It would interrupt the story flow a bit much, this early. And I'd hate to get bogged down in semantics.

As for what I've been doing, it's been either ME3 (mostly the demo (Cel'Eb was my engineer before the reset, and this is the last you'll hear of her, as I no longer have her.)) and the game. Haven't beaten it yet, but I know the endings. Which is probably _why_ I haven't beaten it yet. I kinda stopped caring about spoilers when I got trolled by Bioware with Tali's face, which fell firmly into the uncanny valley IMHO. In the meantime, I've posted two one-shots if you want to check them out. One is an ME one, and the other is Touhou. I've got another in the works with about 7k words, but idk when it'll be ready.

For Daemonwelsh, the oneshot you asked about cannot be posted, as I used second person (which I didn't know was not allowed), along with me violating another rule. Removing one of the aspects would ruin the story, and removing both would decimate it. So I removed it. I had posted it with another songfic (which was legal since the song used is from the Civil War, and is public domain) I might simply post the songs in the future, but the idea kinda burned me out.

That's all for now though. Probably one more slow chapter until the action begins to pick up again. As always, please read and review, and any critiquing is most welcome! And finally, an emoticon from my cat (who actually wrote this when she stepped on my computer.)

[]'-=]


	5. Questions and the Blue

_This is the _**Cirno News Network**_ with a breaking story. According to a reporter at the sister company _**Westerlund News**_, this author is rumored to have gained ownership of everything in this story. Said reporter, Khalisah al-Jilani, approached the possible new owner to try to get his comments on the subject. Sadly, during the interview, said interviewee injured a fist on the interviewers jaw. As the camera was destroyed and all evidence comes from the damaged mouth of the reporter, we must assume that the above statement is true. Further investigations/interviews await._

_Note: _**Cirno News Network **_and associated publications are produced under the _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****)**_ Any information disseminated by _⑨_ is most likely untrue, and is rebutted by the parent corporation. Actually, it is most definitely untrue, and is completely false. Also, who in the world would believe the above news report? We sure don't. Although, the only reason people would pay attention to _**Westerlund News**_ would be to watch that woman get punched. We find it very amusing._

_This has been a message from _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****) **_and the _**Cirno News Network**_. Remember, _**WE ARE THE STRONGEST!**_ Now, back to your irregularly scheduled fic._

Chapter 5 - Questions and the Blue

Cowering behind battered conference table, Harry finally understood a few things. The people he had met on his journey so far had spoken reverently of Commander Shepard. From the way they spoke, there was as if no wrong the man could do. However, in the past fifteen minute, something more important had been realized. The sheer loyalty that the Commander inspired in his crew mates, even beyond the grave. That loyalty was the reason that he found himself behind said conference table, as a quarian angrily released her emotions over the news that the Commander's body had been taken and desecrated in order to revive him back to fighting shape.

Needless to say, the thought had not sat well with her.

As she continued to angrily mutter and growl at everything in sight, Harry sighed. Edging out, he eyed as the woman whipped out a pistol and shot the nearest Cerberus insignia again. _At least she is acting like any other woman I've known would act. Just glad she isn't magical; then we would've had a problem._ As another bullet streaked by and hit its target, Harry just nodded. _Yup. Definitely glad._

At this point, however, he had grown tired of being used for target practice. Silently raising a shield about him, he clambered out of his cover and stared down Tali. "Are you calm enough to continue discussing this, or do you need to keep shooting at things?"

She shrugged to herself. "Personally? I'd rather keep shooting. It's rather cathartic to take out all of these Cerberus logos." She sighed, before plopping herself down on the edge of the table. "But it's not really of any use. They've probably been watching us the whole time. And I suppose I'd rather not shoot the only human that seems friendly to me."

Harry just shrugged. "That'd be nice. I don't really want to try healing myself so soon after the mission." He eyeballed her. "Besides, Jacob was friendly with you down on the colony. Why didn't you say he is? You even took to calling him by his name"

Silvered eyes just glared at him. "Because, if you haven't realized, but Jacob is _Cerberus._ While he may have been friendly, I'm still not sure if it's some ruse to get us comfortable and try to take advantage of us."

"And? As far as you know, I'm working for Cerberus too." _Anyways, didn't we already have this discussion? It certainly sounds familiar._

"Well, if you're telling the truth, then how could you be with Cerberus? And if it's a lie, it's one of the best I've seen. You _believe_ what you told me." She turned her eyes aside, staring at the Cerberus logo for a while. "Shepard always had the craziest ideas, and he was always _right_. He trusted his gut, and it always worked for him. My gut says you're telling the truth."

Harry watched, before nodding shortly. "And what about Jacob?"

Tali froze for a moment, looking to the side. Eventually she lowered her head, refusing to look Harry in the eyes. "…It says to trust him too."

Smiling slightly, he patted Tali's shoulder. "It's just hard to admit that when your mind is telling you that he's the enemy."

She shrugged sheepishly. "Kinda. It's weird to do it. I've fought Cerberus so many times with Shepard, and everything else… It's hard to let go."

"Well you're only human…" She glanced up at him causing him to blush after he thought about what he said. "Err, quarian, I mean. You're allowed to make mistakes. Isn't that what makes us what alive?"

Tali looked at him for a second longer, before choking out a laugh. "I suppose. Although I'd rather not get into philosophy and the question of whether we have a soul."

Harry just shook his head sadly. "Well, it's true at least. We all have a soul. Well, at least as far as I know you do."

"You seem pretty sure of that. More magic stuff?"

"Yeah. Souls are what make up a person. If you lose your soul, it's not pretty."

Tali sighed, before leaning back on the table, staring up. "That guy from the story, before we got onto the subject of Shepard. Voldemort, was it? He had done something to his soul?"

Harry nodded as he sat next to her. "Yeah, I did gloss over that. But he did do something. Something horrible. He split his soul into several pieces, and placed them inside objects to keep him alive." Softly, he whispered just under his breath. "He created Horcruxes."

Tali kept staring at the ceiling, counting the spots she had shot in it. "How would that keep him alive, though? And how could he create such a thing?" She shivered imperceptibly. "Keelah, the thought of it is… somewhat scary. Even with all the magic on top of it."

"That it is. And it's one of the most terrible things to do. To split the soul, you have to commit cold blooded murder." Seeing that he had her full attention behind that visor, he continued. "I don't know how to do it myself. Maybe there's a ritual, or another spell. Either way, it's not something that we're meant to know. It's… monstrous how one could do that. By splitting the soul, you create tethers to this world. And as long as a single tether to the world remains, a wizard cannot die."

Lying quietly for a few minutes, Tali sighed to herself. "It's just a bit crazy, to be honest. These are things that philosophers have been wondering for eternity, and yet, your people knew all along." She forced herself up, speaking without facing Harry. "After seeing what you can do, I'm amazed that humanity isn't more advanced than it already is."

Harry shrugged, more to himself than anything. "I'm the last one, or so the Illusive Man implies. Whether or not it's true, I don't know. And since I've done things that would have gotten the attention of wizards on Earth… They were either not on Freedom's Progress, or there are none left."

Suddenly, he stood up, walking towards the wall and banging a fist on it. "Dammit, this shouldn't have happened!"

Surprised by his actions, Tali gazed over at him, standing just in case. "What do you mean, it shouldn't have happened?"

"I worked for years to help the wizards… The Ministry. I spent years to try and advance them, at least to the point where they could function with the muggle government." He sighed, dropping his hands to his sides. "Did they regress so fast without me there? That they died out in less than two hundred years? I don't know."

He shook his head suddenly, trying to clear it. "Bah, we're both getting too negative. The wrackspurts are getting to us."

Puzzled by his statement, Tali crossed her arms and asked, "Wrackspurts? What are those supposed to be?"

He shrugged, a small grin coming back to his face. "Oh, they're a type of magical creature. They get into your ears and make you thinking go all fuzzy. With the way we keep getting angry, there might be an infestation in here."

"And when I thought you couldn't get any more insane…" She brought a finger up to tap her vocader. "So, these wrackspurts make you go crazy? I'd say it seems a bit farfetched."

Harry's grin widened a bit as he chuckled. "Perhaps a bit. They were a relatively new species. My friend discovered them in me, as apparently I had a whole bloody colony living in my head."

"Really?" The sarcasm in her voice told Harry exactly what she thought. "So, they are bugs that somehow got through my suit and infected my… ears? You know that quarians don't even have ears like humans."

Harry shrugged. "No, I didn't. Maybe they got in some other way. But remember, these are _magic_ bugs."

Tali sighed to herself while holding her faceplate in her hand. "Bosh'tet. Are you trying to drive me insane?"

Yet again, he grinned. "Not particularly. But to understand magic means letting go of a bit of that common sense…" He tilted his head, watching her. "Anyways, sanity is overrated anyways."

She scoffed at him, but turned up and met his eyes. "Well, at this rate you will end up doing so." Not waiting for his reaction, she shrugged and continued to eyeball him. "So, what are you going to do now?"

Harry pushed himself off of the wall. "I don't really know. Might as well get things ready for Shepard when they… bring him back to life." He gritted his teeth. It leaves a bit of a sour taste in your mouth to say that, doesn't it?"

Tali nodded. "It does. Let's just hope that whatever happened to Shepard, he doesn't end up like your Voldemort. Or worse."

Nodding, he waved her forward. "Me too. But I think we need to get moving, either way. Not much we can do just by sitting here and hoping."

"Agreed. We've been serious enough, as it is."

-oo-

"That woman was way too cheerful."

Harry was standing there, still somewhat stunned by the barrage of information that had been delivered by one Yeomen Kelly Chambers. After that deluge of current missions that had been listed off, interspersed with random questions on his magic and his availability in general. Eventually she realized the catatonic state he was entering, and left him standing there with an offer to continue later.

"Maybe. But that was still hilarious." Tali, of course, was laughing dearly, with only the mask she wore muting the laughter. "Who would have imagined? Mighty mister magician brought down by an eager girl?"

Harry shot her a glare, before laughing a bit himself. "Hardy har har. I just wasn't expecting anyone to act that way. The anonymity was getting quite nice." _I could especially do without the girls throwing themselves at me. That got old very quickly way back when._

"Well, Potter, it looks like you still have on fan girl. You should make sure to lock your door when you go to sleep." Still snickering to herself, Tali began strolling to the cockpit. "Come on, we need to get this ship moving. If the pilot is competent enough, that is."

Still chagrined, Harry followed behind her. "So, where would you suggest going first? If it was up to me to pick, I would just point randomly at one of those screens and pick the one my finger landed on."

She shook her head. "You still don't really know about this galaxy… Well, I'd suggest Omega first. Perhaps going to the seediest place first would be for the best? You could only go up from there, then."

Harry snorted. "That's one way to put it, I suppose…"

"It is. Now, who is the pilot here…?" She stopped behind the seat, which was occupied by a man wearing a baseball cap. After pressing one button, he spun around to face her. "W-wait. Joker?"

The man, Joker apparently, grinned up at her. "The one and only, Tali. Welcome to my new baby! Isn't the _Normandy _even sweeter than she was before?"

Exasperated, Tali sighed and shook her head. "Yup, definitely you Joker. I'd have you remember that this isn't the same _Normandy_ as before…" Fiddling her fingers, she looked away towards the view of the cockpit. "…Not that I haven't wanted to look at the Engine Room. Just haven't had the time."

Joker waved a finger at her, taking. "Now, what's happened to you Tali? On a highly advanced starships and you haven't even bothered to check it out? Have you been acting as Ms. Codex for Merlin over here?"

She chuckled to herself. "Hardly. It's more the other way around. I've had him explain a lot about who he is supposed to be." She cast a glance at Harry. "Not that a lot of it makes any real sense, but I'm ignoring that for now. On the other hand, he also had to explain about _Shepard_. I hope that's why you've joined Cerberus?" At this point, Tali had folded her arms, staring down at Joker with an unreadable look in her eyes.

Sufficiently intimidated, Joker simply nodded. "Yeah. The Alliance grounded me after Shepard died… So it wasn't a choice for me. Serve with Shepard and fly the _Normandy_ again? I couldn't say no to that." He shrugged. "Besides, I'm with Chakwas again. And now we've got my favorite quarian back, and Space Merlin too! Once Shepard's back, we're set."

Harry rubbed his face, but declined to comment. Instead, Tali responded. "I'm hardly back, Joker. We just need to get a new shuttle and head back to the fleet, first chance we get."

"Aww man, that sucks." At that, he turned towards Harry. "Well, if you're gonna be in charge, Merlin, you might as well get your questions in now. If our local Compendium of Knowledge on all Things Quarian is leaving soon, you need to get a move on it."

Harry sighed and shook his head. "I have a feeling I'm missing something. But Merlin was a real person, Joker. I'm just Harry. A perfectly ordinary, run of the mill wizard."

"I bet. They just churn out wizards in factories. That's why we see them everywhere."

Harry turned to face Tali. "I'd ask if he's always like this, but given his moniker, maybe I should ask if he just wants people to hit him?"

She just nodded. "He does. But since he has Vrolik's, we can't. He breaks way too easily."

"Oh, what a pity." Harry shook his head. "Oh well. So, Joker, you ready to get us on out of here? We need to be heading out pretty soon."

"Well, I suppose you're the boss, for now. Although what do we call you?" He shook his head and spun his chair around. "Eh, we'll figure out as it goes. Detaching from the dock." An echo sounded throughout the ship as it did so. The motion was notable by its absence, as the ship swung around and black filled the viewport. "Let's hope we didn't leave anything important behind, shall we?"

"Well, we definitely didn't leave your humor behind, pity." Tali turned to face Harry. "So, you decided on Omega? It would be good for us. We need to acquire another shuttle so we can head back to the fleet."

Beside Joker, a blue orb popped up over the console next to Joker. A familiar mechanical voice rang out over the speakers. "I have already alerted your squad members to your decision, Ms. Zorah. They have begun their preparations for departure."

Tali only gazed frostily in the direction of the pulsating orb, before giving it a short nod. "…Thank you then, EDI." To no one in particular, she muttered, "Still a rather fancy interface for a VI, in my opinion…"

Curious, Harry asked, "VI? Is that some special sort of AI? EDI had mentioned something to that effect earlier." _Ok, why did Joker just pull down his hat and slide down his seat? And did the hologram…. wince?_

Eyes narrowed to the point of being no more than slits, Tali stared Harry down. "What… exactly did that _thing_ tell you?"

Before Harry could respond, EDI chimed back in. "I informed Mr. Potter earlier that I am the AI in charge of Electronic Warfare on this vessel. Although I am a true AI, I have several limitations built into both my hardware and software that prevent me from truly interfacing with the _Normandy_."

Tali, eyes now focused on the AI, began to raise her voice. "What in the world does Cerberus think they're doing? A true AI? What else did they put into this ship? Any other breaches of Citadel law?" She turned and rounded on Joker. "And why didn't you mention anything at all about this!"

"It is because Mr. Moreau has not had the time to leave his post since you came on board. I personally didn't announce my presence, as I felt that it would cause unnecessary discomfort among you and your squad."

At that, Harry was confused. _She's purposefully skirting the first question. And why would it disturb the quarians? _Trying to calm her down, he said, "Tali, what's the problem? EDI has been honest so far…" Any more words stopped when the cold gaze was turned back to him.

"_Good _to us? An AI, being good to a person? Harry, AI's are what have destroyed my species! The AI's, the _geth_, wiped out billions of our people! They chased us off our homeworld! Thanks to them, there are barely even seventeen million quarians left in the entire galaxy! And I'm supposed to trust an AI just because it's been _nice_ to us so far?" Tali nearly growled, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "No, I will not be nice to an AI. I'm going to go meet up with my squad so we can be ready to leave this sailing tomb as soon as possible." At that, she spun on the spot and walked out of the cockpit, fingers curling as she met every person's gaze with naught but silence.

It took a few seconds for the silence to finally break. "Well, I always knew she was a feisty one, but that was something else. Never seen her like that before."

Harry sighed and slumped on the console next to Joker. "She's been on edge the whole time she's been here. What with Shepard, and Cerberus, and now AI?" He shook his head, while resting it in his hand. "Is it really that bad? It sounds like they're on the brink of extinction."

Joker just nodded slowly. "It is. She wasn't lying about that figure either. There are seventeen million quarians in the fleet. There are a few ten thousand here and there around the galaxy, but it's not enough to really matter much. It doesn't help that some of the ships in the fleet are three hundred years old, and are starting to fall apart."

Harry's mouth dropped open slightly. "Three hundred years? That was when we were still on sailing ships, much less in space. He sighed, before looking down at the floor. "Is the future really that bad? That only terrorists are the ones trying to find what's attacking everyone?"

Joker looked back over his shoulder and grimaced. "Parts of it aren't bad. But the politics can make anyone hate it. And since we're still trying to butter up some of the other races…" He sighed. "Well, I'm not going to get into it. All I do is fly my girl here." At that, he patted one of the panels in front of him.

"I got you. It just seems somewhat surreal. That after all this time, we still have the same old problems hurting us." _And after all the effort I went through to change things for the better_.

Joker shrugged imperceptibly. "Don't I know it." After a minute or so of quiet, he spoke up again. "Hey, you ever get to see a mass relay before?"

Harry shook his head. "No. The shuttle we were on had no windows at all. And even if it did, I was passed out on the way back."

"Right, I remember that. Used too much of your moo." Snickering at his own little joke, he beckoned Harry up. "Well, here's one coming up. Get a nice good look at it. You may be flying Joker Spacelines, but you're not gonna get the chance to see it from the bridge much more."

Nodding to Joker, he walked forward, standing beside Joker's console. Bracing himself on the structure, he watched as a blue glow expanded into an elaborate structure, which kept growing before his eyes. _That thing is absolutely massive. Did they build this? Or was this one of the relics left behind?_ Eventually, they pulled alongside it, not even five football fields from it. _This thing _is_ enormous. And it looked so small just a few seconds ago._

_It makes one feel rather insignificant, doesn't it?_

As Harry continued to watch, sparks flew from the core of the structure, striking the _Normandy_. Before his eyes, the inky black of space blue shifted as they were flung forward at speeds many times that of light.

_I guess that settles it. I suppose I'm a space wizard now._

-oo-

The rest of the trip was still rather awe-inspiring for someone who had never seen the space travel. Discounting the constant needling from Joker, that is. But even that didn't bother Harry, as he knew it was just good-natured ribbing. Eventually, however, Joker warned him that they would be docking soon. As much as he wanted to continue watching, he needed to go and grab Jacob.

That then led into an argument over whether Harry should wear some armor. That was quickly shot down, as Jacob himself did not wear much in the way of armor in the first place. And whether or not the fabric nowadays was stronger than old-fashioned cotton, enchantments canceled that advantage straight out. Besides, Harry didn't know if charms would stick to the new stuff anyways.

Eventually, the two of them were outside the ship in the rather drab docking tunnel. Casting glances about said tunnel, Harry could see why this place was considered so poorly. _Broken panels, aliens holding up each other, and thieves and conmen everywhere I look. A wretched hive of scum and villainy, if there ever was one._ He snorted to himself. _Always wanted to use that line._

Turning to Jacob, who was busy fiddling with his shotgun, Harry asked, "So, what's the plan, Jacob?"

The man pulled up his omnitool, angling it so that Harry could see. "We've got two choices at the moment. We could either try to recruit Archangel, or Dr. Solus. We should probably get both of them on board before we leave the station; it would take care of a lot. We need the doctor to develop a countermeasure to the Collectors anyways."

Harry just nodded to him. "Understood, sounds fine and all. But where do we go from here? Unless you know where either of them are at already?"

Jacob grimaced and shook his head. "It was suggested in the dossiers to seek out Aria, the veritable Queen of Omega." He glanced away. "But that was assuming Shepard was here. She'd be willing to meet with him, since he's so famous. But since we don't have anybody of nearly equal status… We might have to get crafty."

Harry stroked his chin. "Well, I believe I can do crafty. All I'd have to…" He trailed off, hearing the door to the _Normandy_ open. Turning about, he saw six of the quarians exiting the ship. They quickly moved along with purpose. Behind them, Tali also walked out. Spotting Harry and Jacob, she began to fidget with her hands. Still, she stepped up to the two.

"Hey there, Harry. Sorry about earlier. I should have remembered that you're new to all this." She waved her hands around, grasping at air. "I shouldn't have stormed off like that."

Harry just waved her off. "Don't worry about it. I did plenty of stupid things when I was young, too. Besides, Joker told me enough for me to get the picture. You were under enough stress as it was." Tilting his head towards the now retreating backs of the quarians, he asked, "So, are you headed off with them to… wherever?"

Gaze moving momentarily to her squad, Tali looked back to Harry. "They're going to find a shuttle for us to use to get back to the fleet. It'll probably take a while, what with all the haggling we'd have to do." She shrugged, before looking down. "I don't need to go supervise them just to do that. I thought that maybe if you needed some help with getting one of those people, I could help."

Raising an eyebrow, Harry allowed a small grin to form. "I don't mind at all. You did great back on the colony. You sure you want to though? It sounded like you need to be heading back soon."

She nodded. "I'm sure. It shouldn't take that much longer." Meeting his eyes, she continued. "Besides, I owe you one. I never got the chance to pay back Shepard, so I'd like to do this. It's not much, but…"

Harry just nodded and patted her on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I understand. Life debts are important…" _And there are a few that I still owe people, myself. Will I ever get the chance to pay them back, myself?_ Shaking the distant look out of his eyes, he continued. "Well, alright, you're in. But first, we need to get to Aria."

Turning to Jacob, he asked, "So, where is Aria located? Or does she keep moving about?"

Tapping a few more buttons on his omnitool, he replied, "She should be bunking in Afterlife. It's a club that's relatively close to here. Bouncer won't let you in without permission though. But if she isn't there, someone there will know where she is."

"Aye, gotcha." Retrieving his wand, he motioned the two to where no one else on the gangway could spot them. "Well, we have two options. But first, let me ask you Tali." Turning to her, he finished, "How important _are_ those suits to you? All the quarians were wearing them, but I didn't know if they were just armor or…" He trailed off, awaiting her answer.

Again, she began to fiddle with her fingers. "Extremely important. We can develop nasty… infections, would be the best analogy for humans. Our immune systems are weak, so if we're contaminated, we're in bad shape." She looked him in the eye. "It's why it's a miracle Prazza survived. The wound alone should have killed him, but the amount of flesh exposed to a contaminated atmosphere?"

Grimly, Harry nodded. "Alright, I see. So, suit comes first." Tapping his wand on his mouth, he thought outlaid. "So a Disillusionment Charm is out of the question. Too much active magic, and it might short out the electronics." Nodding to himself, he silently waved his wand at Jacob. "Notice-Me-Not Charm it is, then." Quickly thereafter, he waved the wand at Tali, then at himself. "There we go. We're set."

Looking at his arms, Jacob searched for any obvious effect. Not finding any, he queried, "So, what exactly is this supposed to do? I don't see any difference."

Harry chuckled. "It's really simple. It makes people not notice you. So if we're wading through a crowd, they won't see us coming. If they're too strong willed, though, they'll see right through it, though." He motioned them forward, keeping his wand in his hand. They passed by one of the four-eyed aliens without him noticing. "Just don't try and do anything too crazy. People will notice exceptionally odd things."

Tali chuckled to herself. "I'm just glad that Garrus doesn't have this. Or Joker. They'd be even more obnoxious than before." The trio came upon the entrance to the club. Slowing slightly, they moved pass the line of people and the enormous bouncer, none of which paid them the slightest bit of attention. "I see this is working. Why didn't you use the option though?"

"The other spell has a lot of active magic in it. It makes you close to invisible. Not quite though. It fries electronics quickly, too. But this one is a very gentle charm. After all, wouldn't it be noticeable if electronics randomly stopped working?" Seeing the looks on their faces, Harry shrugged. "Magic works that way. I've never studied the theory that much." Waving his left hand in front of the door, he frowned as the hologram beeped red, before fading back. "Crap, locked."

Before he could raise his wand, Tali stopped him. "I got this. Had a lot of experience when I was with Shepard. Not to mention since then." Popping up her own omnitool, she had her two fingers dance across the screen. Nearly instantly, the door flashed green and squeaked open. "See, easy as… cookies, do you say? Seems they depend on the bouncer more than the door to keep people out."

Snickering slightly with Jacob, Harry nodded. "Close enough. We should getting moving though. They might notice something like the door." Sure enough, the large alien was turning about at the noise. Making a point to get through the door before one of the guards decided to reset it, the three made their way into the club.

_Bah, it had to be one of these clubs? Can't have anything tasteful in this day and age, can't it? _Harry snorted to himself. _Listen to me. I'm already sounding old. Next thing you know I'll be chasing kids off my lawn. If I still have one._ Shaking his head at Jacob's inquiring look, he forced himself into the den of iniquity that Afterlife turned out to be. "So, any idea where to look?"

Jacob pointed to the back. "If it were me, it'd be somewhere I could see everything. That dais in the middle would probably be the spot, so we can just take the stairs."

Nodding, Harry made his way to said stairs. He was amused at the looks on his two squadmates' faces, as they kept expecting the armed guards to react to their presence. Nonetheless, no guard reacted, and they made their way to the top, where a lone blue alien was lounging on a couch. Turning to Jacob, he asked, "So, this Aria?"

"Yup, that's what I'd bet."

He stroked his chin. "So, is she one of those asari? Mythical blue space women with biotic powers and can mate with anything?"

Jacob couldn't help but to chuckle. "Essentially. Not fun to fight, I can tell you that much."

"I bet," Harry drawled. "Hrm… I've seen better."

That caused Tali to laugh. "Don't let her hear that. Most asari would attack you just on principal for that."

Harry was about to retort, when he noticed Aria turn her head and stare in the general direction of Tali. _Must have heard her laugh… This one might be a tough nut then. Here's to hoping I don't have to fight her. _Before she could either get up herself or direct her guards to check, Harry canceled the charm, revealing himself to Aria. "Hello there, Aria."

Eyes widening slightly in surprise, she slowly pushed herself up. Behind Harry, two of the guards immediately drew their weapons and pointed them at the wizard. "Indeed I am. And who are you to intrude on me? Normally, someone who would try a stunt like that would be killed."

Harry grinned tightly, as his eyes began to glow subtly. "Oh, I'm just a friend who needs some information. I heard that you're the best one to get it from on this station."

Raising a painted eyebrow, the asari asked, "And why would I tell an intruder like yourself anything?"

"For one, I don't want trouble, I'm a nice guy, after all." He shrugged. "Besides, if I really wanted trouble, I wouldn't have exposed myself, would I? I did walk through the front door without any trouble, after all."

The asari looked him over once again, before jerking her head to the other end of the couch. Glancing at Tali, he saw her pat her shotgun in reassurance. Walking to the couch, he took a seat as the guards slowly relaxed their weapons. Aria threw them an annoyed glance before looking back at him. "Well, speak. I'm a busy woman, after all. I don't have the time to entertain all of the rabble that can make its way into _my_ club."

Harry nearly snorted, but kept up form. "I'm here because of the human colonies. There are two people on the station I wish to recruit, and I don't have all day to spend finding them on my own."

Aria glanced over, giving him a measured look. "Why should I tell you any of this?"

Harry's grin morphed into a small smirk. "For the same reason that you should have told humanity that the Collectors were targeting when you killed the group that was making a deal with Blue Sun."

Her poker face broke enough to show through her facade. "Perhaps I should have informed humanity. It was my station though, and do I really care if it doesn't affect me?"

"But it does affect you. You know that if someone was considering taking out one of the major species, _especially_ one of the Council species, it would affect Omega. And since you _are_ Omega…"

Forcing her reaction down, she leaned forward, staring at Harry with narrowed eyes. "Where did you find this out?"

Harry shrug, smirk still on his face. "A little blue birdie told me." Seeing her stay silent for a few more seconds, he shrugged and made a motion to get up. "Well, maybe this is getting nowhere. Perhaps Urdnot Wrex would like to know where Aleena is, after all…"

She sullenly snapped out, "Fine. Who are you looking for?" Harry let himself fall back into the seat before answering.

"Two people. Dr. Mordin Solus, and one named Archangel."

Aria just stared at him for a moment longer. "Interesting… objectives you have there. Solus is at the clinic in the quarantine zone. Any of the imbeciles that lie in these streets can tell you where that is." She neglected to go any farther into that matter.

"Archangel, on the other hand, is being actively hunted by Omega's three biggest mercenary groups. If you're angling to take him out, you could just wait until they finish the job." A few seconds later, she smirked back at him. "But you said you wanted to recruit him, didn't you? In that case, I'd suggest you hurry."

Nodding, Harry said, "I'll take that into consideration." He stood up slowly, nodding to her again. "Thank you for the information."

As he turned away, Aria spoke up. "You're… interesting human. Maybe I'll have to talk to you again."

Harry turned around, and smirked at her. "Maybe I'll come back." At that, he melted into the background. Shivering as the Disillusionment Charm applied itself, along with the Notice-Me-Not Charm, he put his hands on the shoulders of his two companions and pulled them away with him. Shushing them quiet, he led them away into a dark corner of the club where nobody was. Making sure nobody was listening or paying attention, he disabled the former charm. "Alright, it's safe to talk."

Tali raised her finger as if to ask something, but then put it down and looked away. "Do I want to know what kind of magic mess you pulled off there to learn all of that? I highly doubt you knew all of that going in. Especially since you didn't know what an asari was until minutes ago."

Harry grinned innocently. "Oh, that?" His eyes began to glow slightly again. "Just a little thing that us wizards call Legilimency. It's quite useful when you need to know what's on other's minds."

Jacob butted in to the conversation with, "Wait, you're saying that you're able to read minds?"

Raising a hand, Harry waved it back forth in a so-so manner. "Not really. I can read surface thoughts easily. And I can dig, but whatever I find is random. But she was really freaking out there, even though she wasn't showing it. So, some of her more notable actions came up in her head."

"So, have you been reading our minds too?" The thought seemed to scare Tali some.

"No, I haven't. It's a restricted art where I come from. Only the few could learn it." He let his eyes fade again. "It's also rather rude, isn't it? A poor way to learn about someone, either way."

The both of them sighed in relief. "Good then," Tali said. "So, ignoring the other magic you pulled off up there, where are we supposed to go now? She didn't give us much of a lead."

Harry grinned again. "Not verbally. There was a Blue Suns recruiter over on the side over there. That's one of the mercenary groups, right?" Getting a nod in return, he continued. "So, I took a glance on the way over here. Apparently at a… shuttle port nearby, there are a few Blue Suns drivers taking people to fight this guy. So all we have to do is trick the guy we've signed up onto their side, and we'll be in their base. Sneak through…"

"An inside job? Interesting plan. But how do you expect to get the guy to take us over? We're not on any of their records, after all."

Harry grinned and glanced over at Jacob. "Magic," they chorused. Harry laughed at the frustrated look on Tali's face.

"Insane, I tell you. All of you humans. Come on then, let's get this over with."

The trio strolled back out of the club, with the quarian yet again muttering under her breath various offensive things about a certain few humans. Making their way through the entrance again, Tali pulled up a map on her omnitool. They quickly made their way to the nearest shuttle port, where they found another of the four-eyed aliens standing bored near a shuttle. Making sure no one was nearby, Harry launched a quiet _Confundus _at the guy, and then disabled the charm on the small squad.

"Good evening, or afternoon, or whatever. We're some new recruits ready to go see Archangel."

He nodded somewhat dumbly. "Yes yes, you're the new recruits."

Harry grinned. "You will take us to Archangel."

"Yes, I will take you to Archangel."

Somewhat cheekily, he added, "This is not the quarian you are looking for."

As Tali took the opportunity to slap Harry, the alien nodded dumbly again. "Yes, that is not the quarian we were looking for. Not that we were looking for any in the first place…"

Nursing the bump on his head, he let the driver walk away, somewhat addled. Facing down a glare from Tali and amused Jacob, he shrugged. "What? I've always wanted to do that."

The quarian looked like she was going to make an issue of it, but then sighed. "I have no idea why you would want to, but I feel that any explanation would take up too much exposition. Let's just get moving so we can get Archangel."

Harry just grinned and shrugged. Turning to Jacob, he waved his arm to the shuttle. "Women and children first." Now Jacob had a tic in his eye, although he dutifully laughed along as he got in the car. Turning to Tali, he waited for her reaction.

She shrugged and walked towards the car. "Either you're just that crazy, or you're incorrigible. That is, if you're not both." At that, she slid into the backseat next to Jacob.

"Either way, I'll take it as a compliment." Chuckling lightly, he fell into the front seat of the shuttle, before staring out at the tangled mess that was Omega. _Once more into the breach. Half a league, half a league, half a league onward._

_Here's to hoping that what happens to us three isn't the same as what happened to the six hundred._

A/N I'm back and with a new chapter relatively early! I didn't expect to get this one finished until much later, actually. So, you'll get it early. It may be a bit short compared to the last two, but I felt it was the best place. Now, should the next chapter include just the one mission and the afterwards, or should I include both it and the quarantine zone? I suppose it might depend on how long both of them end up being, but input all the same would be glad.

Otherwise, not much to say. Gonna plug my other oneshot I wrote that's posted. It's short, and a bit of a crackfic/excuse plot, but I had fun with it. Other than that, would like to ask if I should keep using this disclaimer, or go back to the old style. This one amused me greatly writing it, but it's a tad long. And in the wrong category, technically.

Oh, and btw, I did not intentionally try to make the last 4 chapters add up to exactly 27k words. It just kinda… ended up that way. Ah well. Either way, please review with any questions/concerns/criticisms. Am glad to have them!

A/N 2 Edited for clarity; I forgot to bother with spellcheck. Stupid little me.


	6. Woes of Fiends

_This is the _**Cirno News Network**_ with a breaking story. According to a reporter at sister company, _**Westurland News**_, further investigation following the last news story, the reporter Khalisah al-Jilani has discovered something disturbing. After tailing the interviewee for several hours as he wandered about the Citadel. As he passed by a few others, however, he began muttering about lunatics on the grass towards them. These comments were followed by promises to meet them on the dark side of the moon. Further reports will follow when we have more information. Nonetheless, so far, we have dubbed the whole incident 'creepy'._

_Note: _**Cirno News Network **_and associated publications are produced under the _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****)**_ Any information disseminated by _⑨_ is most likely untrue, and is rebutted by the parent corporation. Actually, it is most definitely untrue, and is completely false. And we should consider informing the authorities about the above reporter, as this is verging on stalking. After all, the interviewee was most likely listening to Pink Floyd. Or their modern knockoff, Lightish Red Floyd. Music is just not as good as it used to be, is it?_

_This has been a message from _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****) **_and the _**Cirno News Network**_. Remember, _**WE ARE THE STRONGEST!**_ Now, back to your irregularly scheduled fic._

Chapter 6 - Woes of Fiends

Barely ten minutes into their flight through the twisting confines of Omega, the shuttle touched down. Standing up, he quickly waved his two companions out of the shuttle, before waving the still confounded driver way. As he did so, he turned around to find yet another of the strange four-eyed aliens bearing down on them. He took them in, the multitude of eyes searching each member of the party before turning to Harry. "Seems like we're starting to scrape the bottom of the bucket. Sorry, lady, but this ain't some social gathering. You can take yourself and your pretty little dress back on out of here. You'd just clog up the battlefield."

Harry rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Just remember that when we're coming to get our pay. May have to take a little more than you wanted for that comment."

The alien just laughed in his face. "Whatever you say. Just don't start dancing too much on the battlefield. You might distract the real fighters." He held a hand up to his ear, making something inserted within click. "Yeah, you're starting it? Alright, I got three more meatbags here, I'll send them up to the front." Rolling his many eyes, he let go. "Alright, we're starting the assault. Just head up to the front and out with the rest of the men. I'd say that you shouldn't get shot, but with a quarian and your dress, I imagine it won't take too long." Laughing to himself, he wandered off into the recesses of the place.

Grumpily, Harry just turned to Jacob and shrugged. "Lovely fellow, wasn't he?"

Jacob just nodded. "Indeed. You gotta love batarians… They think everything with fewer than four eyes is beneath them."

Harry tilted his head. "Isn't that every single race out there?"

The muted voice of his female companion answered. "Pretty much. Sadly enough though, he was friendlier than a lot of people I've met. Most like to pretend that my kind don't even exist anymore." Tali sighed heavily. "Whatever, let's get going while we still can. Maybe we'll be lucky, and Archangel will get tired of shooting when we get out of here."

At that, Harry nodded, and began to move out. Part of the way there, he had to remind Tali to slow down, as her digitigrade legs kept on propelling her out in front of her two human companions. Giving him a slightly chagrined look, she fell back into line. Barely a minute later, they had made their way to the front. _At least, it probably is the front, giving how many dead bodies there are everywhere. Lovely…_

A shot rang out and took out a nearby soldier. Reacting immediately, Harry dove forward into the nearest cover, as Jacob and Tali did the same. Looking between the two and the freshly dead body, he waited for another few seconds and spoke. "So, any suggestions as to how we get around?"

Jacob looked at him. "Well, I don't suppose you could jump around and use your teleportation thing again, could you? It could distract him enough for us to get across."

Harry shook his head. "Didn't get a good look at where he was. If I don't know where to jump to, I can't do anything about it. And besides, it's apparition, not teleportation."

Glancing at the bridge and back again, Tali said, "So, you don't want to poke your head out and look yourself? With a head that hard, you might have a chance to survive."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Possibly Tali. But as I do value that hard head, I'm afraid I'll decline. And it might be the future, but I hardly think decapitation is in this season."

She shrugged. "True, true." Pausing, she tapped her helmet as another shot rang out and yet another merc went down. "Only thing I can think of is your charm that you used earlier. Wouldn't it work in this situation?"

Nodding, Harry just said, "Yes." Quickly applying the charm on each of them, he flashed Tali a quick grin. "Glad to see how quickly you're taking advantage of this."

She nodded. "Well, I would hardly be a quarian if I didn't adept, would I? But I'd like to see something flashy after this. You've been holding out on us, I think."

"Flashy, eh? You mean a charm that makes you practically invisible isn't good enough?"

She shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. Still, I'd like to see what you can do, and not just what you say you can."

Harry snorted to himself. "As you wish. But first, let's get out of here. Ready to head once more into this gauntlet?" Receiving affirmations from both of him, waited until the next wave was out. As it was going through, he waved them forward, and the three of them shadowed the wave. While nearly every man died on the way across the bridge, they made it by. One soul was unlucky enough to take a breather once he was out of the sniper's line of sight. Tali took the opportunity to draw her boot knife and silently end his short career.

Moments later, bullets began to be fired across the bridge and into the lower floor of the building. Grabbing the quarian by the scruff of her suit, Harry whipped her around into cover. "You know, the charm doesn't really work if you kill someone and every person is watching."

Tali just gave him a flat look. "We were going to reveal ourselves anyways. May as well make sure that he never gets the chance to shoot at us, at least."

Privately, Harry agreed with her. Nonetheless, he just grunted and turned around, making his way through the building. Spotting their lone sniper, another rather oddly shaped alien, he shrugged and began to walk forward. Trying not to raise any alarm in the target, he dropped the charm from the three. Edging forward, he almost introduced himself before the sniper held up a hand. _Three fingers again. Must be more common than I thought._

After dropping another target, the alien sighed and leaned into a wall. Turning around, he looked from Harry to Jacob, and then to Tali. For a few seconds, the alien stared before chuckling. "Not exactly where I expected to see you Tali." As he spoke, the alien reached around and unbuckled his helmet before removing it. "But I can hardly complain seeing a friendly faceplate, after all."

Tali stared at the alien's painted a second before running towards him. "Garrus! You bosh'tet, what do you think you're doing?" As she reached him, she pounded on his chest plate. "What made you think it was a good idea to try and get yourself killed?"

The alien, _Garrus, I suppose_, chuckled dryly. "Oh, nothing too much. Just needed to keep sharp. A little live fire practice goes a long way, after all." He gazed over at Harry and Jacob. "But what are you up to? Have so much fun on the Normandy that you decided to get your own herd of humans?"

While Harry was pretty sure he was joking, he glanced at Jacob and asked quietly, "They don't actually do that, do they?" At the shake of his head, he sighed a bit, and turned to listen to the rest of the byplay.

"What? No, I am not Garrus. The rest of my team is off getting a shuttle. I decided to lend a hand to Harry here, since I owed them a favor."

That got another dry laugh. "Harry? You must really like him then. You never called Shepard by his first name."

She crossed her arms and stared down Garrus. "Nobody called Shepard by his first name, Garrus." She sighed and shook her head. "This isn't the time. We need to get you out of here. I can call for my team to pick us up in the shuttle, as soon as they can, anyways."

Garrus lowered his eyes. "I can't do that, not yet. I've been hunting some of these targets for months. These are bad people Tali. People that have ruined the lives of countless others. If there's a chance I can take them out, I'm going to." Then his expression darkened. "Even if we could, there's a gunship out there somewhere. I was able to disable it earlier, but who knows if it's fixed. No need to risk them being shot down."

She shook her head. "You never change, do you?" Giving up the argument for now, she motioned Harry and Jacob. "Sorry for ignoring you two. Harry, Jacob, this is Garrus. Old friend from when we served with Shepard. And his head is even thicker than the bony plates seem."

Laughing, he threw the quarian a look. "That just makes it easier to take a bullet, then." Anyways, he composed himself. "Anyways, nice to meet you two." His eyes lingered on Jacob's uniform for a second. "Although it is odd to see Cerberus personnel being so blatant about their affiliation, especially on Omega."

Jacob met his glance blandly. "Maybe so. But that isn't why we're here. We're to recruit you."

Garrus just raised his brow. "Do tell. If that's the case, then you might want to help me get want I want. I might listen then." He shrugged and turned back to the bridge. "I've been using the bridge here to keep funneling them over. The mercs just keep sending out their new hires. It's no trouble, but I've got the feeling their planning something."

Harry decided to chime in finally. "So, we just need to keep up the pressure." Looking over the bridge, he sighed. In all the time they had spent talking, the mercenaries had regrouped. Multiple squads of white and yellow armored troops began had taken cover on the far side of the bridge, while veritable hordes of mechs began to take flanking positions. While primarily LOKI's, the formations were interspersed with a few YMIR mechs. Remembering how much damage they took back on Freedom's Progress, he grimaced.

Garrus seemed to echo his sentiment. "Eclipse mercs. Arguably the most elite of the three groups. Do I need to point out how fond they are of mechs?"

Shaking his head, Harry replied, "No thanks, I can tell." He turned to face Tali. "Any way that you could hack enough of them to cause a distraction?"

Tali shook her head. "Maybe three or four if we get lucky. But with all those troops, it will hardly matter. They'll just be able to run straight into the base."

"Wonderful. So, need to pull out the big guns." He watched as the first groups left cover and slowly began advancing, still fearful of sniper shots. "Garrus, you able to cover me from anyone taking me out?"

The alien shrugged. "Sure, but what are you planning to do? You don't have a gun, and you aren't pretty enough to distract them with your looks alone."

Harry grimaced at him. "Trust me." Readying his wands, the incantation fell from his mind onto the tip of his tongue. Staying himself, he asked one last thing. "One request then, Tali. Fire or ice?"

She turned to face him, silver eyes inscrutable. "…Fire. Why do you ask?"

Raising his wand, he replied, "Because I'm about to make their world end."

Staring down the rear of the line, he barely registered as the mercenaries' eyes turned up towards him, wondering what the silly human was doing waving a stick. He waved his wand, gathering up his magic as all else dimmed in his mind. Quietly, almost with a whisper, the incantation finally made its way past his lips.

_Fiendfyre._

Gouts of fire poured out of his wand, streaking over the heads of the majority of the mercenaries. A few unfortunate souls were unlucky enough to have the flames lick their armor, igniting the hard material in a blaze that they could not put out. Finally, it landed on the far end of the bridge, creating a wall of flames that scorched the small army with an unfathomable heat.

Shaken by the attack, but believing that the human had somehow missed them at point blank range, they kept marching forward. As they raised their own guns to fire, ignoring the screams of their comrades whom were being cooked alive inside their suits, they stared into the eyes of the human. Eyes that were beginning to glow.

A roar sounded behind the mercenaries, causing a few of them to turn around. The flames, spreading too rapidly to be natural, were beginning to take form. A reptilian maw appeared in the flames, roaring yet again at the army. The mercenaries focused on the head and began firing rounds into it. Nothing they did, however, had any effect.

The head kept roaring as the fire kept growing, inching closer and closer to them. As the flames consumed everything before them, the head began to rise, supported by a long neck licked by the fire. Still, shots poured into it in a vain attempt to put it down. One of the higher-ranking mercenaries pounded his omnitool, making the mechs turn around and join in the fire. As the bullets whistled by the head of the creature, it focused its sight on the nearest group of mercenaries. With yet another roar, a clawed foot appeared from the flames and descended upon the heads of its foes.

They were incinerated instantly.

The flame grew further, and another leg appeared and descended upon the next group. The mercenaries, having gone from professional calm to full panic in a heartbeat, began to rout. Some of the smarter ones attempted to make their way inside Archangel's base. However, a withering hail of rifle and pistol fire cut them down before one even reached the perimeter. Others simply broke down on the bridge, unable to comprehend what had just happened. These were easy pickings for the fell beast.

A fair few, however, tried to stand their ground and continue firing at the creature. Roaring again, it leaned itself forward so that its head was level with the rest of the crowd. The remaining mercenaries that were cognizant began to retreat out of reach of the fiery claws and flaming teeth. However, the creature opened its mouth, and the flames poured forth.

The LOKI mechs instantly burst into flames, their thin armor being no match for the intense heat. The YMIR mechs lasted seconds longer, until they too melted into slag, and then disintegrated. A similar fate met the rest of the mercenaries, as fire's breath washed over them and reduced them to ashes.

A few more seconds, and it was all quiet. No more screams sounded from the bridge, and the dragon had quieted momentarily, as it began to eye the building behind it where more people were cowering.

Harry exhaled slowly, tamping on the wild magic that he had allowed to run wild. The Fiendfyre tried to resist his control as it began to thrash around on the bridge, sending molten material flying in every which way. A few seconds later, though, and it finally bowed to his will as the flames receded. In no time at all, the fire had vanished from the now ruined bridge, which glowed at the heat it had been exposed to moments prior.

Tired from his exertion, Harry collapsed onto floor, leaning against the railing. Turning his eyes towards his three companions as they stared at him in awe, he just shook his head and looked away. "Was that good enough then?"

Realizing it was her being addressed, Tali responded somewhat sheepily, "I… Yes. That was just… How did you do that?"

Harry just grimaced as an unpleasant feeling built up inside of him. "Magic." He knew, though, that they would want a better explanation. "Fiendfyre is a very dangerous spell. It's almost a living flame, and it can burn anything. It's virtually impossible to put out by nonmagical means, too." He clutched his stomach. "The stronger it grows, the more powerful it becomes. If strong enough, it can even take on the shape of a dragon, or a basilisk, or something else similar."

She almost interrupted him with more questions before he grabbed his stomach. Somewhat alarmed, she let forward to check him with Jacob close behind. "Harry? What's wrong? Did you get shot while you were…?"

Shaking his head, Harry tried to smile and relieve her worries. "No, it's not that. It's… Well, it's a dark spell. This is just the price I have to pay to use magic like that."

Tali glanced at Jacob before looking back. "You mean like the spell you said should have killed you?"

Harry shook his head as his hand reached for his virtually invisible scar. "No, not quite that bad. Fiendfyre isn't Unforgivable. It's just dark… And magic wants to remind me I shouldn't be using it."

Placing a hand on his shoulder, she made him look at her. "Then why would you use it then? Weren't there better ways to do it?"

He shrugged as another pain lanced through his stomach. "Maybe. It's the most powerful fire curse I know of. And the only one that truly burns everything. But this way, it cuts off both that attack avenue as well as their hopes to finish this quickly. They won't use that human wave tactic again, at least." He shot them a grimace. "And it's not too bad, at least. I've been Fate's bitch long enough that she gives me some leeway to work with."

Tali sighed before standing back up. "Alright, if you say so." She gazed over the bridge towards the de facto headquarters of the mercenaries. "At least you're right. I can't see anything over there now. They're probably figuring out what just happened to them."

Garrus took the opportunity to chime in. "They are. It doesn't help that you just turned Jaroth into cinders out there. He was the leader of the Eclipse here on Omega, and easily the smartest of the three."

Harry turned to face him. "Sending all your troops in one attack doesn't seem to be that smart, though."

Shrugging, Garrus turned back towards the bridge. "Against a sniper, it's the best idea, actually. At least, in this situation. If it were I, I would have gotten a better sniper to go after me. Or an orbital strike."

The quarian shot him a look. "Still thinking highly of yourself, aren't you Garrus?"

He returned her look in stride. "But of course. It wouldn't do to have anyone beat me. Even if it means I have to be snobbier about myself than other people are." At her flat look, he reached around and scratched his head. "That was a bad metaphor, wasn't it?"

She just nodded. "It was." Turning back to Harry, she asked, "So, are you going to be ok, or do you need to sit out this next round?"

Harry just gestured to his stomach. "Give me about ten, and I'll be good to go. It'll take much longer than that for the bridge to cool down, so we've got plenty of time." As soon as he finished his statement, an explosion rumbled through their base, making them all jump in pace. _Ok, next time, don't tempt fate. It'll just end badly._

Garrus' eyes widened as he eyed the bottom floor of their hideout. "Crap. They must have breached the tunnels…" At the confused look of his compatriots, he explained, "There are a few tunnels that lead into the first floor of this building. I had sealed them off back when my team and I first bunkered down here. They must have intended to use the attacks as a distraction. Clever."

Sighing in frustration, Harry asked, "So, what do we do?"

He gestured down the stairs again. "We'll need to reseal as much as we can. There are too many tunnels to get them all cut off, but we can try to funnel them into one. It'll make it easier on us, at least."

Harry nodded and struggled to get on his feet, before being stopped by Tali. "No, Harry. Remember what you said? You need to wait until you're not feeling sick. Jacob and I can handle it for now, right?" At her glare, the Cerberus soldier quickly nodded.

"You sure Tali? I can go down there instead, if you need…" Garrus was cut off by a finger in his chest.

"I'm sure, Garrus. It's close quarters down there, isn't it?" He reluctantly nodded. "Good. That's the type of combat quarians are designed for. Don't worry, we'll be fine."

"Alright, but first…" Harry raised his wand again and recast the charm on all of them. "There. If you two are going down there, might as well cheat a little on top of that?" Jacob just grinned at him as Tali bowed her head in thanks. "Thought so. Good luck, you two."

As the two left, Garrus just shook his head and moved back to his post. Steadying his rifle, he began to scope out the other side of the building, looking for targets of opportunity. "So, magic?"

Harry just nodded at him, while closing his eyes to rest a bit. "Pretty much. You're taking it calmer than most do."

He shrugged. "I've seen a lot in my time. No magic, but some of the stuff was just as crazy as it. Well, almost." He fired a shot. "Are you something new that the Alliance has cooked up? Or Cerberus?"

"Nah. We've been around for as long as humans have existed. But we've been in hiding for centuries, and not many believe in us anymore."

"Oh, I see." Another shot fired. "Dammit, missed. So, they found your people and recruited you?"

Harry grimaced. "Not really. More like Cerberus built a time machine and stole me from two hundred years ago."

Garrus was quiet for a few seconds before answering. "Interesting. Yet you're still working for them?"

"They have a good reason. You've heard about the human colonies?" He cracked open his eyes to see the alien's nod. "That's why they got me, to try and put a stop to it. We've found who is taking them, too, so we know more than the government, apparently." He closed his eyes again. "Besides, they have the only way for me to get back."

"That sounds like Cerberus." Garrus took a few moments to squeeze out another shot. "So, why haven't they gone back in time to take over the galaxy then? Or make humanity better prepared to meet the rest of the galaxy?"

"If they're using the same temporal mechanics wizards used, then it's because time is immutable." Harry let his voice slip into a lecturing mode. It was something he had picked up from teaching defense so many times. _And from hanging around Hermione so much._ "Basically, the timeline is set in stone. You can't go back in time to change something that happened. I've done it before, when I was real young. I thought that we could change what would happen; but in reality, it had already happened that way. We just had to go back in time to do it." _But now that he mentions it, did I keep a secret all of this when I went back in time? Or did only the magical community know, and not tell the other governments?_

Garrus shook his head before firing a shot, popping the heat sink in his rifle and replacing it, and firing again. "Sounds like fun. A bit too complicated for me, though. I'll stick with shooting things." He waited a few more seconds before speaking again. "It would have been useful having one of your kind last time, when we fought Saren. And Sovereign."

Harry nodded. "If I'm remembering correctly, he was the rogue Spectre that helped the Reaper attack your Citadel?"

Another shot was fired. "That's the gist of it. But Saren was a tough bastard. We had to kill him twice to put him down for good."

"I know how you feel." _Granted, one of the times I put down Voldemort was when I was one, but still it was tough._ "So, pardon me for asking, but what are you?"

That made Garrus pause and look over at Harry. "Really? You don't know what a turian is?"

The wizard shook his head. "Jacob described them a bit for me, but mostly talked about krogans and asari. But the first alien I ever met was Tali, and that wasn't even one day ago."

At that, Garrus started to laugh. "Interesting. Most humans never get to see a quarian outside of the vids. At least you met a friendly quarian before the other, more aggressive races."

Harry grinned at him. "So, a shotgun to the head is considered friendly nowadays? I'll keep that in mind."

"She must like you then. She only saves that for people she really likes, or wants to kill." Garrus chuckled again. "Or maybe it's both. In that case, welcome to the club." Picking off another enemy, he continued, "So, you don't know what the other races are?"

Shrugging, Harry gave his answer. "Somewhat. I know quarian, asari, batarian, and I suppose turian now. I know that get are apparently robots. And I know that krogan apparently have large humps on their back, but otherwise…"

The turian nodded. "Alright, that's a good few of them. You'll recognize the krogan when you see one. Those amphibian mercs with Eclipse are called salarians. They're smart buggers, but they're a bit weak. They tend to never go into combat without having the upper hand. So if you take that away…" He shrugged. "Then there's vorcha. Nasty ones, a lot of teeth, and can heal extremely quickly. They're never friendly." Garrus took another shot.

"That's pretty much all the species you'll have to fight. Hanar are… what did Shepard call them? Ah, yes, Jellyfish. They usually are pretty nice. Preaching about the Protheans. They rescued the drell decades ago, so they act loyally to them. But there are fewer drell than even the quarians, so you'll not see many. Volus are small, and a client species to the tureens. They're universally merchants of some type. And elcor are big quadrupeds; a bit slow walking talking, but they are tough and methodical."

Harry nodded to him. "Alright, thanks for the summary." Sighing, he forced himself to his feet. Still a bit wobbly, he leaned into the nearest cover, before looking out. "So, how many have you gotten?"

"Oh, a good ten or so. They've been more cautious now then they had been. Odd that they hadn't returned fire yet."

Grinning slightly, Harry explained. "Probably that charm I put on ya. They can't notice you unless you do anything out of the ordinary. I suppose that they've just gotten used to you shooting them, so it never crosses their mind."

Garrus flashed him a thumbs up. "Nice, I think I like that. Might have to use it more often."

Harry shook his head. "If it were any other situation, it wouldn't be nearly as useful. Unless it's normal to drop dead randomly from sniper shots here in the future?"

Thinking for a second, the turian reluctantly replied. "I suppose so. Drat, well, it would have been nice. At least now people will know who's putting them down, at least."

Opening his mouth to reply, Harry was interrupted by a loud and low yell of "ARCHANGEL!" Immediately, he snapped to attention and raced towards the interior banister. Down below was an entire troop of nasty looking aliens with big teeth, along with a few larger ones with humps. _At least Garrus was right. Vorcha and Krogan. Looks like fun._ One of the larger krogan, with an intricate set of armor covering him, marched up the stairs as he continuously shouted for Garrus by his title. He turned to Garrus, who had also entered cover nearby. "So, you know this guy?"

A small growl issued from his throat. "Yeah, Garm. Leader of the Blood Pack. Fought him once to a standstill, but that krogan regenerates like you would believe."

As the krogan charged up the rest of the stairs and turned down the hall, Harry asked, "So, need to take him out real quick then?"

"Pretty much."

At that point, the krogan had broken into the room, and was sniffing around for them. "I know you're in here Archangel. Come out and fight!" Having a sudden thought, Harry waited until the krogan had his backed towards them and let his wand peek out. _Levicorpus._

Suddenly, the krogan was inverted, hanging in the air as his shotgun clattered to the ground. "Archangel, I said fight me! Not hide behind your traps like the weak turian you are!" Before he could rant too much farther, Harry moved onto his next spell. _Glacius_. Ice began to form around the krogan, causing his eyes to widen and for him to start struggling. Before too long, though, the ice had begun to permeate the thick skin and armor of the krogan, lowering his core temperature dramatically. And soon after that, he was frozen solid. Still, to be sure, Garrus pumped three rounds into the krogan's cranium, shattering it completely. Tossing aside the corpse with a banishing charm, Harry turned his eyes back towards the ground floor.

Which was now covered with corpses and blood.

Before he could add two and two together, the familiar synthesized voice rang out. "Got a bit lazy there, Harry. Good thing we got back in time to get your backs."

He turned to grin at his companions. "Hey Tali, Jacob. So, I suppose everything went swimmingly down there?"

Jacob just nodded, wiping off his shotgun as a dark substance slid down his uniform. "Pretty much. They never saw us coming. Only a few of the krogan down there even noticed that people were dying left and right. Did you put something extra in that charm?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I didn't. I guess fighting and dying is normal enough for all of them that they hardly noticed."

Tali chuckled darkly. "Apparently. It's just nice for something to go our way for once."

Nodding absently, Harry simply replied, "Just don't jinx us. If my luck is anything to go by, the worst is yet to come."

Walking back towards the bridge side of the room, Garrus took his sniper rifle and started looking around. "Maybe, maybe not. Blue Sun is the only group left, but they're the largest. Considering how thin their numbers are by now…" He paused for a second, thinking. "Still, taking out Jaroth and Garm, along with their respective mercenary groups? I'll be satisfied with that." He turned back to the group. "If you want, we can bug out now, while we still have a window."

Tali nodded, before opening her omnitool. "Alright, I'll check and see if they've found a ship yet." As she did so, Harry noticed movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning, he spotted several blue shuttles streaking just across the skyline.

"Garrus, eyes up. I think we have incoming."

The turian picked up his rifle and checked them through the scope. "Dammit, you're right. Blue Sun's gonna try dropping in, since the bridge is still too hot."

Harry nodded and turned to the other two. "Jacob, Tali, You two need to head downstairs, and try to keep us covered. I'll be able to take out any up here. Garrus, just keep on sniping."

Nodding, the quarian and human ran to position, while Garrus moved back into his cover. As he took potshots at the incoming shuttles, disabling one, ropes began to appear outside the upper windows. _They are rappelling in? This shouldn't be too hard._ Raising his wand, he waited for the first mercenary appeared and hit him with a rather simple charm. _Depulso_.

The merc was suddenly thrust away from the rope as he fell into the abyss below. Grimacing at what he had to do, Harry continued to cast the charm again and again as more troops attempted to drop in. Eventually, they stopped their attempts to enter through the upper level. Harry turned his eyes to the lower level, where his companions were taking holding off the growing mess of troops that were incoming.

While Jacob's biotics were rendering the occasional mercenary helpless, it still wasn't enough to stop them. There was a purple orb floating about Tali, firing rockets at troops that were attempting to flank the two. Deciding to inject himself into the fight, Harry cast a few Reductor curses at those nearest the two. As they fell to the wayside, armor beaten and battered, he spun towards the largest mass of troops and cast another spell that had a little more weight. _Bombarda._ The explosions threw the clusters of mercenaries to the ground, and forced them to flee to cover.

Seeing that the tide had been turned, Harry checked to see if they had begun lowering troops into the upper level again. As they hadn't, he was about to begin cursing the lower levels again when a voice rang out through the din of battle. "ARCHANGEL!"

Outside the building, a large angry looking plane had appeared, dashing straight towards the window. Harry heard the cry of gunship from Garrus, and had begun to bring his wand to bear. Before he could get off an attack, however, streaks of bullets lit up the upper level, accompanied by missiles trailing plumes of smoke. Seeing them streaking towards Garrus, he quickly changed his spell and incanted mentally.

_Protego Amplus._

A point of light exploded out from his wand, growing into a dome as the missile streaked closer. Mere moments passed by as if they were minutes, until the shield eclipsed Garrus, and the missiles struck.

Light filled Harry's eyes as the explosives pounded against the shield. Ten times did the missiles impact, and ten times he did not waver. However, the gunship continued to fire and sap his strength, until finally the shield was penetrated. The magic lashed back towards Harry, separating him from his wand and throwing him sideways into the wall. A sick crack accompanied his impact as his left arm broke due to the force of the impact. He slid down the wall as stars danced in his vision.

However, Harry forced himself back to the realm of the living. After making sure Garrus had safely positioned himself away from his damaged perch, he scanned for his wand. Seeing that it was too far away, he reluctantly reached into his pocket for the wand made of elder. Still, his body was aching and moving too slow, as the gunship's weapons clicked and it prepared for a second pass.

Suddenly, an explosion on its side interrupted said gunship. Reeling in the sky from the sudden attack from an unseen foe, it attempted to whirl around to face it. Three more blasts were issued, and three more explosions appeared on its side. Trailing smoke, it began to move back towards the safety. It was all in vain, however, as another shot rang out and shot away a thruster. Unable to keep control, it began to spin out and crashed onto the bridge. Weakened from its earlier experience with Fiendfyre, the bridge creaked, cracked, and snapped off, taking the gunship and its pilot into the abyss.

Somewhat dazed by the turn of events, Harry groaned and struggled as he attempted to stand again. As he tried to, a hand reached out and grabbed him by his good arm, helping him to his feet. It cautiously let go as Harry found his bearings. Ignoring the pain in his dangling, useless arm right now, he looked around for his wand. Not seeing it, he was about to panic before a hand tapped on his shoulder. Turning, he found an amused pair of silver eyes watching him, as she twirled his wand in her grasp. Grinning somewhat, he held out his hand for her to return it.

"If you insist as much." Her voice was still amused. "It was a bit funny watching you realize you didn't have it." Still, she handed it back without a fuss.

Harry took it and conjured a splint and rope to bind his arm. Gritting his teeth at the spike of pain that shot up through his arm as it was snapped into place, he answered her. "I don't exactly need it, but I've used it for so long, it's a part of me. Without it, I'd feel naked."

Tali tilted her head to the side, before nodding. "I understand what you mean. I may not have a lot to call my own, but what I do is very precious." She shook herself out of her reverie. "Come on Harry. Our ride out is here."

Nodding, he followed her silently out of the building, taking care to move past the remains of the mercenaries. Reaching the impromptu dock, he found a larger, older shuttle hovering in the air, with a few of Tali's quarians speaking with Garrus and Jacob. Mincing his way forward, he followed Tali onto the shuttle and took a seat to the rear, leaning on the bulkhead. Looking over at her and Jacob, he tried to crack a grin. "So, did ya'll have a good time?"

Jacob just grinned and chuckled, but didn't say anything. Tali replied, "It wasn't too bad. Although I have to admit things were a bit flashier than I'm used to."

Harry snorted. "Well, I aim to please, at least." He heard Garrus cough to himself. "What?"

He just laughed to himself. "I would have to agree with the flashier bit. But this was your first mission with my favorite quarian, and you know what they say. You have to go easier the first time, take it nice and gentle, and let the lady guide you." He gave Harry a look that he had come to associate with a grin. "If this if your definition of gentle, I'd hate to see what you do when you play rough."

"Garrus! Why. You…" Harry took the momentary distraction of Tali's outburst to massage his forehead.

"Go ahead, Tali, might as well hit him. I'd offer to do it for you, but…"

"I've got a better idea, actually." She summoned her omnitool and tapped a few buttons. The same purple sphere from earlier hummed into life. She eyed Garrus evilly before spitting out, "Go Chiktikka. Go for the optics."

Harry and Jacob, along with the rest of the quarians, watched bemusedly as one old crewmate tortured the other for the rest of the trip back. _Well, this will be a fun adventure. Pity that Tali has to leave. This is pretty amusing to watch._

-oo-

A few hours later, and Harry found himself sitting in the conference room, thankful that someone had finally decided to bring chairs into it. Having just gotten through informing the Illusive Man of their progress, along with enduring questions about what exactly he had done with his magic. Tired from the impromptu interrogation, not to mention fixing his now sore shoulder with his magic, he was ready to fall asleep in this chair. _I suppose I should find where my quarters are. Funny, it feels like I have been here forever, yet I still haven't had a proper night's sleep on a bed yet._

Getting up out of the chair, he made his way to the exit and opened up the door. As he did, he was met by the familiar purple faceplate. As he did, he stopped and stepped aside to let her through. However, she waved him down, before asking him, "Hey, Harry, have you got a minute?"

Resisting the urge to yawn and beg off, he nodded to her. "Sure, I've got some time. But I thought you'd be gone by now."

She shrugged at him. "We're pretty much ready to go. The squad is just sitting waiting for me to get back. I'm just surprised that Dr. Chakwas let you out of her sight. Magic or not, she would have felt that a broken bone is a broken bone, and needed to be watched."

Harry smiled slightly. "I guess I got lucky then. When she examined me, she found that the arm was perfectly fine. Granted, she wanted me to stay for observation, but as I was nothing but tired…" He shrugged back at her. "Besides, I had to inform the _boss_ of what happened. Jacob may be the executive officer, but he's got plenty of duties split with that and running the armory."

Tali just nodded. "I see. Well, sounds like you enjoy being in his presence almost as much as I do."

That made Harry laugh. "Not quite, but close, I suppose." He continued laughing for a few seconds, before quieting down and sighing. Looking at her, he asked, "I suppose there's no way to persuade you to stay in there. It's been good working with you so far."

Eyes becoming downcast, she looked away. "It's not that I want to leave. You may be working for Cerberus, but I know you and Jacob are actually good people now. And you're doing this for the right reasons, at least."

Allowing a small smirk to appear on his face, Harry said, "It doesn't hurt that we've got Garrus along for you to torment?"

She looked back at him and chuckled darkly. "Perhaps. I know it was fun having Chiktikka go after him." She calmed down though, her somber tone returning. "But still, I have a mission for the fleet that I need to complete before anything else. And the fleet will always come first."

Harry just nodded in reply. "It's all you have, so you have to fight for it. I understand perfectly."

Tali nodded before sitting there quietly. After a few seconds, tilted her head, looking him in the eye. "I don't suppose there's anyway I could persuade you to come back with me, and help the fleet?"

Unable to risk the jab, Harry replied, "Taking the strange man you just met home with you? Sorry, I can't do that." _I've got a home to return to already._

Tali's eyes narrowed at him. "Oh, don't make me set Chiktikka on you too." She shook her head. "That's not the reason. After seeing all you can do, You could help out the fleet so much with your magic. I… just had to ask. Just to satisfy my curiosity."

Harry nodded. "I know, I know." After giving the idea some thought, he shook his head. "But I can't. Not right now. Maybe someday, I can come help. But right now…"

"You've got the Collectors to worry about." Tali nodded and sighed. "Well, we each have our duties." She made a move to stand up.

As she did, Harry offered, "Is there anything I can do to help you on your next mission, though? Whatever it is you're doing?"

After giving it some thought, she sat down and replied, "Is there a way to keep those charms up long term? They were really useful down on Omega."

Harry slowly shook his head. "Not incredibly long-term. The reason they worked on Omega is because the magic wasn't on you, it… surrounded you, for better lack of a term." He paused. "It encompassed you. But if I put a long-term spell on you, it would have to be within you, and your suit. And since the suit is so important…"

Tali just nodded to him. "I understand. It was a bit much to hope for, but I had to ask."

Tapping his chin, Harry slowly said, "But there might be something I can do. Can I see your heat sink?" Somewhat confused, she reached back and pulled the heat sinks out of her shotgun and pistol, and placed them on the table. Picking them up, Harry took a good look at them. "So, they're nothing fancy? Just blocks that absorb heat?"

Tali nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. While they do cool down like the old ones, they are less efficient since they're removable. Smaller surface area for the heat to dissipate from."

Enthused by her response, Harry kept quiet. Withdrawing his wand, he tapped the first brick and firmly incanted _Gelu Aeternus_.

As he did, white wisps began to appear about the block. Lazily floating about it, they grew nearer and nearer, before being sucked in one at a time. After the magic imbued the block with its power, the pale red of the heat sink faded into white and frost began to grow about it. As the spell finished, Harry gingerly picked it up, wincing at the cold. Giving it back to Tali, he asked, "This should help with that problem then. You think it will work?"

Holding the heat sink in her hand, she whispered, "Keelah, I can feel it through the suit…" Shaking her head, she turned to Harry and answered, "Yes, it should work fine. How long will it last though?"

Harry shrugged. "It will last until you break the enchantment. Granted, if you use it too much, it'll break, but the only thing I know of that could break it would be dragon's breath or Fiendfyre."

Tali nodded. "So, the only way it would break is if the gun was melting in our hands anyways?"

"Pretty much." Seeing she approved, he went ahead and did it to the second one. "Just remember to test it beforehand. I never was the best enchanter, so there may be something wrong."

"I will, don't worry." Gathering up the heat sinks and replacing them in her guns, she stood up. Staring quietly as he stood up next to her, she began to fiddle with her fingers. "Ummm, well.." Kicking herself mentally, she stood up straight and forced her hands to comply. "Captain Potter, permission to leave your ship?"

Curious about her sudden change in demeanor, but not asking, Harry replied, "Permission granted, Miss Zorah." After she relaxed, he continued, "And Tali? Good luck. Hope to have you on board again."

Her otherwise impassive face belied her reply as she said, "The chance to serve with a couple of insane humans in an attempt to save the galaxy? Again?" She shrugged, acting nonchalant. Yet her eyes were laughing at him. "If I get the chance, I suppose it'll be hard for me to pass up." Quieting down, she said seriously, "Thanks Harry. Hopefully someday, you will return to where you belong." At that, she turned around and left Harry in the conference room.

He sat there for a few minutes, mind still a bit tired. Eventually, he stood back up, talking to himself. "I suppose I better go find someone to tell me where my bed is, like I was going to in the first place. It's past time when I had a good sleep." _And maybe the dreams will take me home, if only for a little while._

A/N Well, I suppose I'm done very early this time. I considered waiting a few days to release this, so as not to get you too used to a quick update schedule, but we'll see. Anyway, now we come to the close of what I am affectionately calling Scene 1, Act 1. I don't study drama though; so don't sue me if I get the terminology wrong. But yeah, now we're losing our first teammate, but we have Garrus to make up for it, for now.

If you were wondering, I had considered originally going and finishing Haestrom first, and getting the quarians on our side. But the path would have been a bit too far into the Flotillawank for me to take it seriously. At this point, Harry is still reacting, instead of acting, so he'll just keep running through the motions for now. Anyways, for Tali fans, don't worry. She'll be back by Act 2.

We also learned a few things this chapter. First, I love abusing the Notice Me Not Charm. It's so useful, but at the same time, is limited by the fact people _can_ see through it. However, if you think I'm going overboard with it, just tell me. Secondly, Harry and dark magic doesn't get along well, which makes sense. As fun as a dark!Harry might be, I'd like to keep this one on the light side. But he is ready and capable of using the spells (and in a few cases, he will.) Just don't expect much to happen in that regards, unless necessary. Finally, we learned he could be beaten, if he's not careful. Granted, surprise!gunship can ruin anyone, but it's still something to worry about.

Anyways, enough rambling. Thanks for reading; as always, do please review.


	7. Stench of Toil

_Breaking News from the _**Cirno News Network**_! Ace reporter Khalisah al-Jilani from associate news group _**Westurland News **_has just reported that the Migrant Fleet has entered the Sol system in order to conduct a business deal Alliance. After sending a horde of shuttles into Earth's atmosphere, the admirals made contact with the leaders in a trade deal for wood, of all things. Our ace reporter soon learned that the quarians wanted the wood in order to fuel some new projects and for research. Has it been so long since the quarians' have had a homeworld that they forgot what wood is? Or have they decided that firing their ships with holly and elder instead of helium-3 is more efficient? More coming soon._

_Note: _**Cirno News Network **_and associated publications are produced under the _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****)**_ Any information disseminated by _⑨_ is most likely untrue, and is rebutted by the parent corporation. We here are beginning to wonder if the news group _**Westurland News**_ happens to be a tabloid. They fudged the details in the contract. Unfortunately, we have nine _**(****⑨****)**_ more years until we can create a new contract. Perhaps the strongest number shouldn't be used in all circumstances._

_This has been a message from _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****) **_and the _**Cirno News Network**_. Remember, _**WE ARE THE STRONGEST!**_ Now, back to your irregularly scheduled fic._

Chapter 7 – Stench of Toil

"You sure you want to do this, Garrus?"

Harry eyed his newest teammate. It had barely been twenty-four hours since they had recruited the turian, but Harry still wasn't sure that he was in fighting shape. _Bizarre alien stuff aside, he held up a siege by three small armies for days on end. Anybody should be out like a light just due to the exhaustion._

Said turian just shrugged, and patted his rifle. "Good as anyone could be. I'll admit that I'm not too keen on this mission of yours…" At that, he shrugged. "You know, walking head first into a quarantined area that has a disease that targets only aliens? That's the kind of thing I'd have done back when I was with Shepard." Turning away from Harry, said, "Tali… told me what they were going to do with him. As much as I hate Cerberus, if they manage to pull this off…" He trailed off. "Well, I don't know. It's a lot to take in."

Harry just nodded to him. "It is… And worst thing is, I've my doubts if that will even work. It's too good to be true."

Garrus barked out a laugh. "More of that wizard stuff, I take it? Tali tried to tell me a few things about it that she knew. While warning that you were also insane and had to be watched closely, in case you decided to do something crazy."

Grinning to himself, Harry shrugged. "That does sound like something she'd say. We did drive her up the wall a fair bit." He paused. "I take that back. We drove her up the wall a lot."

Garrus laughed a bit. "Oh, I don't doubt that. She's used to knowing how everything works in this galaxy, even if she doesn't show it. And here comes someone casually violating the laws of physics, as if they were mere guidelines than anything."

Harry just shook his head. "She didn't seem that shocked by it. For that matter, you're not acting particularly shocked either."

"Well, we were all desensitized to stuff like this two years ago." The turian gave him a meaningful glance. "Sure, to any normal civilian, it would be mind blowing. But when you've talked to a machine that wants to end the galaxy, and can create mechanical horrors out of people, a little thing like magic isn't too bad."

"I suppose you're right." With little more to say, Harry just patted him on the shoulder. "Glad you're agreeing to help with this."

He glanced away from Harry. "Indeed. It's… troubling, working for Cerberus. But I know Shepard will need good men, no matter whether we both work for them, or if I have to help him get away."

Harry laughed at that. "I understand, completely. Just don't say it too loudly. EDI might hear you."

His eyes darted back and forth, before settling back on Harry. "Don't remind me. You get used to the idea that the cameras are watching you everywhere, but for the actual _cameras_ paying attention… Well, it's slightly creepy. Like the ship might be stalking me."

The computer took that opportunity to chime in. "I assure you, Mr. Vakarian, that any and all recordings of you are encoded and stored for purely business purposes. You have no need to fear me releasing them to any clientele that would attempt to use them for ulterior purposes."

Keeping silent for a few moments, he chuckled and shook his head. "Well, I suppose I should be thanking you. At least I don't have to worry about that computer spending cycles watching me for anything beyond platonic reasons."

Waiting a few moments to see if EDI would answer, Harry shook his head. "You know, Garrus, the last thing I would worry about is if the AI was lusting after you."

Garrus laughed loudly at him. "Well, you should know that the ladies have always loved a turian in armor. The only things I'm missing are a few scars. I've heard they really like something like that."

Harry sighed again. "Well, in that case, perhaps I should have let you try and catch that rocket with your mouth. You'd have a real nice one in that case." He shook his head. "Enough chit-chat, we need to get this over with. Go grab your helmet; we're leaving soon."

The turian started to turn around, but then paused. "My… helmet?"

Rolling his eyes, Harry said, "Yes, your helmet." Without waiting for a reply, he continued. "The helmet that goes with your nice suit of fancy space armor, which you took the time to tell me even works in space. Which means that it's a closed system, and that no air gets in or out. Which means that it probably would be a good idea to wear in an area on the station where there's a pandemic going on. Especially a pandemic that targets everything except humans."

He glanced around before chuckling again. "I suppose that would be the smart thing to do. Here I was planning to run out and hope my fierce face would cower all of the foes before me." He shook his head. "I'll get it then. But you're ruining your image of insane human wizard by being logical."

Harry just shrugged. "Maybe. But there's a shotgun I'd rather not face if I let _you_ do something insane, and I do have preservation instincts at times."

"Agreed with that one. She is rather enthusiastic about using it, these days." He began to walk off. "Alright, I'll grab it. Meet you in five, Potter."

Shaking his head, Harry turned and waved his hand over the door panel, letting it open and allowing him into the decontamination chamber. After letting it cycle through, he stepped outside the ship, where he was met by Jacob looking over his guns.

"Harry, see you're ready." The man looked up and at him. "So, where's our newest teammate? Deciding that he's not going to come?"

Harry rolled his eyes again. "Nope, he just went back for his helmet. He thought it would be a good idea to go into the quarantine zone unprotected."

"Ah, I see. Sounds like a typical turian. Thinks he can tough anything out."

"I don't think that anybody we've tried to recruit so far could be called typical, Jacob."

"True, true."

After a few moments in silence, Harry asked Jacob, "So, remind me again who we're going after?"

"Dr. Mordin Solus, a scientist salarian." Jacob scratched his chin. "Cerberus knows that he is a biological weapons expert, and that he's had training with the Salarian STG. There's not confirmation that he actually served with them, but I'd say that considering his record, he likely did."

Harry nodded slowly. "I think I see. This STG thing is some kind of military unit?"

Jacob simply replied, "Yup. Special Task Groups is what you would consider a typical black ops unit. Focus on information gathering, stealth, subterfuge, and everything else you'd expect from a black ops group. They are what the spectres were based on, originally."

"I see." Pausing for a second, he grinned. "So, we're looking for a cross between a doctor and James Bond."

Jacob returned the grin. "I highly doubt it, but that's an amusing idea. Keep it in mind."

Again, the two fell into a silence, breaking only when Garrus returned with helmet affixed. Making sure that he was actually ready, the trio set off through the station, making their way through random inhabitants, busybodies, insane rambling priests, and mercenaries. Only to be stopped at the entrance to the quarantine zone by a turian armed guard, standing bored. As he spotted the three, he snapped to attention, finger caressing the trigger on his gun. "You three need to turn back the way you came. This part of the station is locked down, due to the quarantine. No one is allowed out."

Pausing for a second, Harry glanced at his teammates and then back at the guard. "Sure, we get that. But we're heading inside."

The turian shrugged. "True, but that doesn't change much. The mercenary groups are having enough trouble keeping everyone in line. The vorcha have almost overwhelmed the Blue Suns, so it's hardly the safest place." He gave Harry a steady look. "And you're not even carrying a pistol, much less something that would be useful. Like a grenade launcher. So, why don't hike up your little dress and just wait for everything to settle down?"

Harry rolled his eyes, before turning to Garrus. "Do my robes really look like a dress?"

The friendlier turian just glanced at him. "They do. But turians never wear anything like that. It looks more like something an asari would wear. Just not quite as… snug." He paused, before chuckling nervously. "Just don't get any ideas. I'd rather not see you wearing anything form fitting. No offense."

_At this rate, my eyes are going to get stuck in a weird position, from how much I roll them_. "None taken. But either way, we're going in. We have a scientist to recruit inside."

The other turian tilted his head, still eying Harry. "Scientist? You must mean Solus." He shrugged. "Good luck with that. Last I heard, the crazy salarian was trying to cure this pandemic. Knowing his type, he won't stop until he succeeds. Or he'll be killed by one of the mercenary groups trying."

"He's the one we're after." Taking a moment to think, Harry continued, "So, if we wanted to get him, we'd have to cure this plague first. Sounds like a win-win for everyone, don't you?"

Issuing only a sigh, the other turian tapped a few buttons on his omnitool and unsealed the door. "Very well. Not like I could stop you from going in if I wanted to. But don't expect us to come helping if you run into trouble!"

Giving only a nod in thanks, Harry walked past the guard. As he did, Garrus decided to pipe up, saying, "Oh, don't worry, he can take care of himself. If he can't blow them up, he'll just talk them to death. Few screws loose, that one."

"Garrus… Just check to make sure we're going the right way."

"Alright, Potter. Shutting up."

The group began moving down the avenue, as the tarnished but otherwise well-kept structures began to become more dilapidated, small fires appearing intermittently. At the same time, the light began to dim as many of the overhead lamps were destroyed. Walking further, the three kept silence in face of the unfolding horror. Dead bodies were piled up along the hallways, as insects of various types flew about the corpses. Some of the bodies were piled in almost tidy stacks, but most seemed to just have slumped over, not having moved an inch since they had died.

As they walked further, the smoke from the fires intensified, thickening in the crowded corridors. As it did, a horrid stench began to fill the air. Muttering to himself, Harry tapped his wand on his head, summoning a bubble around it. A few seconds later, he did the same for Jacob, who was admirably bearing the smell.

"Be glad you're wearing that helmet, Garrus. You wouldn't want to smell this."

The turian gave him a look. "What is it? I know there's smoke here, but from the looks on your faces…"

Nodding grimly, he faced away. "Yeah, it's human flesh they're burning. Makes you wonder why. If I remember correctly, humans are immune. Why would they burn them?"

Jacob glanced at him. "Are you sure? It could be batarians, or maybe asari…" He looked slightly ill at the thought. "Not that it's much better."

Harry simply met his eyes. "Trust me, it's human flesh. I've smelled it enough times."

At that, Jacob seemed to not have an answer. Before the silence grew too long, Harry got them moving through the hallways again, towards the source of the smoke. After a minute of walking, Jacob asked, "What is this thing you cast on me? Besides just another one of your spells?"

"Bubblehead charms. Keeps an endless supply of fresh air with you. Probably should have cast it earlier, but I wasn't concerned about our health." He looked at Jacob and offered a weak grin. "Besides, it makes us look like we're wearing fishbowls on our heads, doesn't it?"

Giving a weak laugh in response, he nodded but stayed silent. As they made their way into another room, they found the impromptu funeral pyre the smoke was wafting from. At the same time, they encountered the first living souls since entering the streets of a veritably deserted hell. A small group of Blue Suns troopers were standing around, checking various terminals nearby. Halting Jacob and Garrus, Harry carefully raised his voice. "Hello there? Do you need any help?"

The group of mercenaries glanced at Harry, and then at each other, before dropping what they were doing and reaching for their guns. Before any of them could have their weapons at the ready, they were impacted by multiple Reductor curses slapping into their chest armor. As they crumpled, Harry cast a few banishing charms at them, tossing them into the far corner of the room. As they gurgled and attempted to make their way back to their feet, shots from Harry's allies put them back onto the ground.

As the proverbial dust settled, Harry just shook his head and lowered his wand. _What a waste_. Turning to Garrus, who still had his assault rifle at the ready, he shook his head. "Are all of the mercenaries like that? They didn't even think to stop."

The turian shrugged, lowering his weapon. "A lot of them are. It's every man for himself out here in the Terminus systems." He glanced around, eyes lingering on a dead batarian next to the exit to the room. "And considering the damage in here, they've probably had to shoot everything that moves just to survive. Not to mention where the Vorcha might be…"

"Still, it seems like a waste." Harry looked away from the bodies. "So, we'll be able to assume that all the Blue Suns will be hostile. So, weapons free, I believe the phrase is?" Receiving a nod from his two partners as they cocked their guns, Harry waved his wand above the three. "A few charms, and we're ready. Let's go. Just try not to be noticeable, will you?"

Slinking through the shadows, they made their way down the next corridors, skirting past more bodies. Said bodies included, sadly, what looked like a young couple shot in their backs as they were running. They stopped momentarily so that Garrus could check the map of the place on his omnitool. Seeing that they were making quick progress, they continued along until coming across a barrier manned by an entire squad of Blue Sun troops.

Garrus watched the entrenched troops; eyes flickering back between them and a nearby ledge. "So, any ideas boss? Or we going with the old burn 'em all idea?"

Harry gagged slightly. "Right now, I don't think I'd be quite in the mood for that. If I ever was. Besides, there are no more than twelve of them, so no reason to be so drastic."

The turian laughed softly. "If you say so. So what's the plan?"

"Well, I could just apparate behind them and leave you two here to fend for yourself, since we're so close to the clinic." Grinning at the exasperated look on Jacob's face, he finished, "But that would be wrong. Just go up to that ledge you've been eying, and snipe. We'll hit them with enough firepower that they should barely notice you."

At Garrus' nod and subsequent departure, Harry turned and moved into cover beside Jacob. The other man asked, "So, this doesn't seem your style. Another straight up fight? Hardly seems to be your style."

"Well, like I said, it's only a few. But I'm worried that we haven't seen any vorcha yet. They're supposed to be taking over this sector, but we haven't come across a single group. It sounds like the real fight will be up ahead."

After a few moments of silence, and spotting the rifle poking over the balcony above, Harry, spun his wand around and pointed it at the barricade.

_Reducto_.

A beam of light shot out and hit the top of the barricade, where one of the soldiers had been sitting. As he tumbled over the side, more flashes of light appeared from Harry's wand, battering the makeshift barrier. After a few moments where the mercenaries didn't have a clue how to respond, they began to return fire, filling the air about the pair with hypersonic particles.

Above the din, the crack of a sniper rifle issued forth, and a body became limp and fell to the ground, no head to control its descent. A second and third shot also rang out, separating two more craniums from their bodies. As their allies fell to the sniper rifle, the squad peered around, trying to find the location. After a lull in fire from Garrus, however, the Blue Suns concentrated their fire back on Harry's position.

Tirelessly casting the same simple spell over and over, Harry hammered through their barricade, causing the top portion to begin to fall. As it did, one of the mercenaries was left in the open, where his head had an unfortunate meeting with Harry's spell. The meeting did not go well, and the head's position was terminated. As the body of yet another soldier fell over, a shout of "Impressive!" issued from the ledge.

The remaining troopers, upon hearing the shout, realized that the ledge might be where the sniper was located, and shifted their fire to pin him down. As the bullets chipped away at the thin sheet metal that made up the balcony, Harry cursed to himself. Ordering Jacob to distract a few of the soldiers with his biotics, Harry switched gears and cast another spell at the barricade.

_Bombarda_.

The ensuing explosions as three spells met the base of the barricade tossed shrapnel into the air, creating a gabbing hole in the formation. As the mercenaries tried to recover their balance, two found themselves caught in the purple glow of a biotic field. As they were lifted into the air, a flurry of shots from Jacob's pistol slammed into one, causing his body to go limp. As it did, Jacob dropped the pistol and unslung his shotgun. Pausing for a moment to overclock the weapon, he let loose a crimson blast of light that tore apart the second trooper.

While this was occurring, Garrus had gotten back out of cover and continued to snipe those who were still standing. As more bodies feel like puppets with their strings cut, Harry leapt out of cover and towards the destruction. Alongside Jacob, he cast a few more spells at the men on the ground, putting them out of their misery.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, the two waited for Garrus to meet back up with them. As he did so, Harry just looked at him and shook his head. "You know, I don't think we're supposed to shout out in the middle of battle. You kinda gave away your position there."

The turian scratched the back of his helmet. "Maybe a bit, but it's never really caused me much trouble before."

"Well, that's the purpose of the charm. You're not _supposed_ to be noticed." He glanced at the ruined barricade they were now standing in. "People firing at you is normal in battle. But a person taking the moment to shout over the din is decidedly less normal. I should have remembered to bring that bloody radio." Harry shrugged. "Suppose it can't be helped. Just, try to tone it down a wee bit?"

Garrus just shook his head, chuckling to himself. "Alright, I'll keep it down. At least for now. This doesn't mean I'll stop any of the other commentary, though."

Shaking his head yet flashing the turian a thumbs up, Harry took another breath and motioned them forwards. Fortunately, the next few passages yielded no enemies, and appeared to be actually clean. Before too long, the three found themselves reaching the entrance to the clinic.

Holstering their respective weapons and disabling the various charms, Harry led the two through the sick bay, past the beleaguered aliens. A few glances into the rooms, piled high with medical equipment, yielded no salarian.

Checking the last room, they found their target, hovering over a patient while muttering to himself. Meeting Jacob's eyes and only receiving a shrug, Harry stepped forward. "Excuse me, could you perhaps…"

At the sound of his voice, the salarian looked up, blinking his large eyes. "Hrm? Yes yes, what is it?" His eyes darted over to Garrus, and his eyes widened. "Ah, I see, turian? Needs cure? Good, good." Grabbing Garrus' arm, he activated his omnitool and placed it over one of the receptors. A moment later, he retracted his arm and disabled the hologram. "Smart one, you are. Actually decided to wear suit with helmet. Most turians stubborn, think they can tough it out. Hardly best idea."

He paused. "Interesting though. Why are you here? Team here sent to clean up? No, no. Definitely not. Obviously heavy armor. Rated for combat, not environmental cleanup. Still, could have just expected trouble. And am sure you met it."

His eyes glanced over to Jacob. "Interesting though. Companion is Cerberus, as you are aware?" Barely waiting for the nod from Garrus, he continued, stroking his chin. "Interesting. Cerberus known for dislike of aliens. Displeasure often mutual. Yet, here you are working with one. Hired gun? No, no. Armor is too professional. Too clean for a mercenary. Former soldier? Bah, all turians are former soldiers. But still, out here on Omega, professional armor, skilled. Former officer? Turned vigilante, perhaps; hunting justice. Archangel then."

Barely waiting for the surprised glance from Garrus, he continued. "Still, Archangel working with Cerberus. Most interesting. Especially as Cerberus employee is using light armor in comparison. Not frontline equipment." His eyes darted around, before nodding. "Yes, yes, must be biotic. Shield generator too small. Well, could be simply suicidal, but prefer to assume the best when I must." His eyes narrowed. "Still, human biotic. Rare enough. More common than ten years ago, but not an everyday sight."

At that, he finally turned to Harry. "And yet, leader is bigger anomaly. Skin pallor is not too unusual, but for one leading troops it is. Short too, below human average. Interesting pigmentation in the eyes, unusually pure color. Would suggest deliberate genetic tampering. However, rest of data inconclusive. If were genetic tampering, would be taller, possibly darker skinned." He breathed in through his nose. "Of course, humans more genetically diverse even with tampering, so easily explained away."

"Still, rest is interesting. Part of equipment is current, while majority is ancient. By the look of it, organic fibers. Inefficient, prone to decay. Dress is also unusual. Similar to religious wear? No, perhaps female human or asari attire? Crossdresser?" He shook his head. "No, no, too obvious. And if it were, would not be _here_, of all places. No omnitool detected, very unusual. Almost unheard of, someone not equipping one." At that point, the salarian began to prowl back and forth, staring down Harry. "Also, no weapons. Odd, very odd. Not even a knife strapped to the boot, or derringer slipped into pocked. Still, acting professionally, even though dressed in such an anachronistic manner."

He finally stopped ranting and took a deep breath, before grinning. "I find myself intrigued. Could be human from the lost expedition recently found, but seems unlikely. Too much at peace with another species. Could be from farming colony, but leaves question as to why Cerberus would go out of the way to recruit. Also, too young to have simply retired." He looked around for a moment, glancing at patients. "I have a moment. What is it you need, mysterious stranger?"

Taking a moment to realize the salarian had stopped talking, Harry said, "You're Dr. Mordin Solus, correct? We're here because of the human colony attacks. You are aware of the situation?"

The salarian nodded shortly. "That I am, on both counts. Horrible thing, but thought there had been no leads?"

"We've discovered who it was. The Collectors." At the look of recognition from the doctor, Harry grimaced. "I see you know of them. But they're the ones kidnapping the colony, for whatever reason."

At that, Jacob chimed in. "And to fight them on even footing, we need someone who can develop a countermeasure to their methods."

Raising a brow, Mordin replied, "Of course, of course. And you sought me out. Even the Illusive Man realizes the need for the best, even if it goes against his own policies." Glancing again at the patients, he sighed. "Still, must stay here. Responsibility is to patients. Have cure, just need it delivered to ventilation system. Odd that ventilation would have system to disseminate chemicals, but… best not to think about it."

"So you need us to go down and put the chemical in the air."

"Indeed." He paused for a moment, and then reached for the vial. "Already have it ready. Would take it myself, but want to be here for my patients. Probably would succeed, but there is a chance would not work." Again, he breathed in through his nose. "Too large a chance. Will not play those odds." Blinking again, he grinned. "Besides, time it takes for you to disseminate cure will give me time to ponder what you are."

Harry raised an eyebrow as he took the vial. "Sure you don't want me to tell? It's no trouble."

"No, no. Is wonderful puzzle. Need to keep mind sharp. Just, one favor?" At his nod, Mordin continued. "Look out for my assistant. Human, name of Daniel Abrams. Bright boy. Idealistic though. Went looking for plague victims, too help. Hasn't returned." He sniffed. "Fear the worst. Vorcha not kind to humans."

Harry just grimaced. "Alright, we'll keep an eye out. This shouldn't take too long at all." Leaving the doctor to his work, Harry walked out with the others. Turning to Garrus, who had remained silent the whole time, he grinned. "So, what do you think of the good doctor?"

After a few more moments of silence, he shrugged. "Damn smart, and hyped up on way too much caffeine. And too observant for his own good." He shook his head. "Still don't know how easily he figured out I was Archangel. He puts eyes on me for a minute, and suddenly…"

Jacob replied, "STG, Garrus. You know how they are. Two steps ahead of everyone else."

"I know, I know. Just hope this one isn't in the organ business, on top of everything else."

Harry patted him on the shoulder. "Don't worry, let's just keep on going. Is the ventilation much farther ahead?"

Tapping a few buttons on the omnitool, Garrus observed it and shook his head. "Not too far. Through a few rooms, an oddly shaped corridor or two, and some other locations." He chuckled. "Sometimes I have to wonder who designed these places. Maybe you wizards helped them?"

"Nah, couldn't have. If we did, the staircases would move. And one of the steps would be fake."

Garrus turned to Jacob, who could only shrug. "Move? As an escalator would?"

Harry grinned "Nope! They would swing side to side. Or they might even flip upside down."

"Right. Let's just go before you decide it's a good time to break my brain."

-oo-

As it turned out, the next few battles turned out to be cakewalks. As Jacob had mentioned the previous day, the vorcha were no strangers to violence. This in turn made them easy pickings for the trio, whose Notice-Me-Not charms made them virtually invisible to the trigger-happy aliens. As they progressed, they could hardly even be called battles, more like slaughters. Only one vorcha had to go down to get them riled up. Yet, when they couldn't find where the shot had come from, they assumed that one of the others had killed a comrade. The ensuing fights that erupted, helped along by accurate fire from Garrus and Jacob, prevented them from being any threat.

Ten minutes after leaving the clinic, the three finally found themselves in front of the ventilation. Handing over the bottle to Garrus, who slotted it in to the system and began typing instructions, they waited for the fans to start. As green lights lit across the board, Harry shared a tired smile with the others. While he didn't necessarily enjoy killing the vorcha, their actions gave him no sympathy. Especially where he found the vorcha eating the bodies of those fallen. He could easily see why they were viewed as vermin.

Walking back the way they came, taking out a few of the ones they missed on the initial run, they came across an interesting sight. A batarian was kicking the corpse of one of the dead vorcha, having apparently come out of a locked door they had bypassed on the way to the vents. Noting the plain clothes he was wearing, and the awkward way he held the pistol, it was obvious that he wasn't one of the mercenaries.

Figuring that since this was the only living soul they had found, he might be the best one to ask. _Besides, all the other rooms have been locked, and I haven't seen a body that looks like a doctor. Let's just hope nothing worse has happened. _Canceling the charm on the three, he took the moment to speak up. "Excuse me, I don't suppose you could help us find someone?"

The batarian whirled around, raising his pistol. After a few moments, he lowered it slightly, barrel shaking. "Who.. who are you, human? What are you doing here? Waiting to distribute more of that damned virus?"

Ignoring the scoff that came from Garrus, Harry pressed on. "Hardly. We just delivered the cure to the ventilation, as per Dr. Solus. We're searching for his assistant at the moment, since he was sent out two days ago. You know where he might be?"

At that, the batarian's eyes widened, but he clinched his fists and answered, "Why should we know where another of you humans are? We can barely tell you alike as it is. And I'm pretty sure that it's just another lie; you probably went and put more of the virus in!"

Harry sighed. "We certainly didn't. But believe us or not, it is done. But we are looking for a human. Do you know where one is, or not?"

He started to raise the gun again. "Don't think you can tell me what to do human! I won't stand for it!"

Behind Harry, he heard the sounds of expanding weapons. Still, he just stared down the batarian, as the thoughts ran across his mind. "You found a human yesterday. He said he was distributing the cure. You instead thought he was distributing the virus. So, you decided to beat him nearly to death, at which you debated whether to shoot him or prolong his suffering."

All of the batarians eyes widened as he stepped back. "How… how did you know?"

"I have my ways. Now take us to him."

Seemingly acting without thinking, the batarian walked over to the door he had come out of and punched in a code. As it opened, it revealed a few more batarians standing around, along with a covered lump on the floor surrounded by a dark stain. Eyes glancing over to Jacob and Garrus, he waved them towards the batarians. As they nodded and began corralling them, Harry strode over and removed the shroud.

The doctor was a mess. Almost all of his exposed skin had been bruised, and his hair had been ripped out in chunks in a few places. While his clothes had been left on him, you could tell by the blood on his shirt that part of his stomach was bleeding. His left arm was bent at an odd angle, along with his left leg. A myriad of scrapes and cuts also adorned his skin, and one of his eyes was nearly swollen shut. All in all, he was in bad shape.

Still, you were able to spot the slow rising of his chest. He was still alive. Only just, but he was alive. Glaring at the batarians for a moment, Harry waved Jacob over. "How much of that medigel stuff do you have on you? Enough to help him?"

Jacob just glanced down. "I don't know… medigel's real good for wounds, but for anything deep, I wouldn't be sure. The bones would need to be broke and reset if we used it on him now. It'd be best to move him down to the clinic."

"Alright. I can heal him enough to be safe for travel." Drawing his wand and muttering the incantation under his breath, he let the white magic pour onto the man. Directing it to worst of his wounds, the man's ragged breathing slowly improved. Checking to make sure he wasn't any worse off, Harry cast another spell in his mind.

_Levicorpus_.

As the man slowly floated into the air, the batarians gawked at the display. Ignoring them, Harry directed the man out into the hallway. Waving Jacob and Garrus onward, he turned around, tempted to say something to the batarians. When nothing came out of his mouth, he just shook his head and turned away. "Be glad that he's still alive." At that, he left them sitting there, staring at his back.

In the hallway, Garrus turned to him when the door shut. "You sure that was the right thing to do? Let them live?"

Harry paused, before nodding. "As much as I'd have liked to, it was. Nothing to be gained by killing them, especially since Daniel is still breathing. Either way, we need to take care of him first." Suddenly, he laid his hands on the floating body. "Which is why we're going to take the quick way. Grab onto my arms."

Immediately complying with the order, Garrus still couldn't help but to toss out, "Sorry boss, but I'm afraid I don't swing that way."

Harry couldn't help but chuckle. "Good thing then, I don't either. But still, you'll be the first turian to experience this."

Seeing an evil grin form on Harry's face, he asked, "And what might that be?"

"Simply put…" Harry closed his eyes, stepped forward, and _turned_. Opening his yes again to see the familiar visage of the clinic, he finished, "Apparition."

Moving forward, Harry pushed the floating body back to Mordin's room, leaving the two standing there dazed.

Leaving the two behind for a moment, Harry found Mordin still fretting over a few bodies. Spying him and the floating body, the salarian took all of a half second to dismiss the fact that his assistant was floating towards him, instead immediately moving clear off a bed for him. "Impressive, stranger. Distributed cure, and found him quickly. What happened?"

Harry just shrugged as he cancelled the spell, letting the man settle onto the hospital bed. "A couple of batarians found him. Thought he was distributing the virus instead of the cure. They decided to take revenge on him."

"Ah, I see. Interesting. Is a pity. Was my other fear. Like I said, Daniel is idealistic. See's the best in people. Maybe this will help him understand…" He sniffed. "Shouldn't say that." After a few moments of waving his omnitool over the body, he scratched his chin. "Odd. Not as bad as I originally expected. Was he treated before you returned?" At Harry's nod, he continued. "Interesting. Detecting new tissue growth, but no medigel residue. All new tissue also correlates with most severe injuries. Intriguing. Your doing?"

Harry grinned, a touch sheepishly. "Yeah, it was. I have a little trick that helps me, in that regard…"

"Yes, very intriguing. Might have to show it to me in due time. Now, need to set bones, have Daniel treated. Might discuss in a bit?"

While phrased as a question, Harry recognized an order when he heard one. Quickly bowing out, left the room. Spotting his two teammates sitting and rubbing their heads, he quickly made his way over to them. "So, you two holding up after your first apparition?"

Garrus just stared at him. "Lovely. Like I've been stuck in a tube and squeezed until I can't breathe. Can say I've been better."

Taking a seat across from them, Harry just grinned. "Oh, look on the bright side. Did you throw up?

"No, but I feel like I might have to. Be a good excuse to get this bucket off my head…"

Harry laughed. "Might as well. We should be done with the fighting here. And the cure's in the air, so you should be fine." He reached over and patted his shoulder. "Besides, you didn't do any worse than I did my first time."

Garrus just shook his head. "If you say so. How can you deal with that all the time? I'm surprised it wouldn't drive you insane." At that, Harry raised an eyebrow. "Assuming you weren't already."

He shrugged. "You get used to it. If I do it too many times in a row, it will start affecting you. It's why I just don't apparate behind the enemy every single time. It's better to pace yourself. I'd really hate to splinch myself, especially since I don't know where any other wizards are."

Afraid to ask, but even more afraid to not know, Garrus asked, "Splinch?"

"Yup, splinch. It's when you leave a body part behind when you apparate."

At that, both Jacob and Garrus grimaced. "That sounds rather painful."

Harry just nodded. "So I've heard." Grinning again, he had to add, "So, if you do lose any pieces, just tell me. I'll be able to fix it. Even if it is embarrassing." Deciding that the two definitely didn't want to continue that line of conversation, he just shrugged and leaned back. "Anyway, the good doctor is just fixing up his assistant, and then will talk to us. He didn't say whether he'd be coming, though."

"So we'll just have to wait until he's done. Roger that." Having nothing else to say, the three descended into quiet. At least in Harry's case. _Jacob and Garrus still are looking a bit queasy. Probably don't want to open their mouths any more._

After waiting for a good thirty minutes, the door to the medical room slid open once again. Rustling his two partners from their daze, he quietly got them up. Making sure that they were still not feeling any adverse affects, he led them to the back room. The salarian was there waiting for them, typing away on a console while humming a tune to himself.

Hearing him walk in, Mordin looked up, "Hello again. Daniel is healing quite nicely. Medigel working well, should be good in a few hours. Gives us time to talk now." He paused, thinking, "Especially if I come with you. Need to fill him in on a lot of stuff. Not too much, good kid. Just, want to make sure. Still, would like to know, if found anything on where plague had come from? Any information on datapads, or in any of the terminals?"

Instead of letting Harry answer, Jacob spoke up. "No, there wasn't anything physical. And all the vorcha died too quickly for us to interrogate them."

"Hrm, pity. Still, very few could have engineered a virus such as this. Collectors, would have been among those few. Concrete proof would have been preferred, but is only logical conclusion." The salarian shook his head. "But enough. Did say I would come if you helped me, so I am ready. First though," he began, pointing at Harry, "Would like to know what you are. True mystery. Closest guess would be extremely advanced biotic, potentially prototype. Held Daniel aloft without any visible effort. Implies either highly powerful, or much control. Perhaps both." He breathed in sharply. "Still, anomalous. All known biotic amplifier prototypes nowhere near level of sophistication required to produce such results. Also, earlier statements stand. Extreme lack of any tech stands out, along with archaic clothing."

Wanting to interrupt the doctor before he got further into his rant, Harry waved him down. "Mordin, you can calm down, I'll tell you. You're not close." Racking his brain, he tried to find something appropriate. _Maybe how Hermione would put it. She'd have had a field day with this guy._ "You might say that I'm a temporally displaced human wizard."

At that, the salarian actually stopped speaking, staring at Harry. After a few seconds though, he blinked and began speaking even more quickly. "Temporally displaced? Implied that you are not from your original time. Extreme. Cerberus resorting to time travel." He paused. "Wait, Cerberus has access to time travel? Not good, not good at all. Ramifications could be significant."

Harry shook his head. "It isn't that bad, Dr. Solus. It's not possible to go back into the past and affect stuff." He paused, and slapped himself in the face. "I take that back. It is possible, but whatever happens stays the same. You cannot change the timeline, even if it's something as simple as going back to tell what the results for a game you're betting on will be. It just isn't possible."

"Ah, so you are suggesting that time travel would be a stable time loop? Conceivable. How do you know that this is the case, though?"

"I've had experiences with time travel before. I ended up saving myself from death, but only because I was saved by myself in the first place." Harry grimaced. "Temporal mechanics are not real fun to think about though. At least, if you think too hard."

The salarian shook his head. "Can understand. Considered it at one point. But xenoscience studies are much more satisfying. And am not fond of headaches, either." He stroked his chin. "So, am I to assume that you are from future, then? Wizard is unusual terminology, but eventual future advances in technology could eventually make biotics indistinguishable from the supernatural."

Harry grinned. "Sorry, doc, but you're thinking the wrong way. I'm from two hundred years in the other direction."

"Implausible. Humans at that point had barely touched space, much less discovered element zero. How could…" Mordin shook his head. "Suppose further speculation is unnecessary. You do not appear to be lying. Still, am skeptical. What is it then that you are able to do, that is separate from biotics?"

"Magic. I did say I was a wizard, didn't I?"

At that, Mordin snorted. "Just because you term yourself a 'wizard' does not make the phrase accurate." After a few seconds of thinking, he reluctantly said, "However, I could see some merit to the story. Asari mythology often has Ardat-Yakshi taking the place of gods or demons, due to their unique powers. Possible that a similar correlation exists between human tales and reality. Although, would have to see powers to know for sure."

Chiming in with a snark, Garrus said, "Oh, he's got plenty. Just be careful. You don't want to be burned to death with a wave of a hand."

"Alright, you volunteered." Harry looked at the turian and smirked. "Would it be enough for me to turn him into a newt?"

All three of the team members blinked at that. "A newt?"

"Yes, a newt." As the proverbial crickets began to chirp, Harry offered, "He'll get better. Eventually." After a few more seconds of silence, he just shook his head. "Ok, nobody got that one. Future. Dammit."

Deciding to take mercy on the turian, Harry drew his wand and waved it at a random pair of forceps laying nearby, muttering the incantation in his mind. It quickly shifted into the aforementioned newt, blinking at the three beings observing it. "There you go. That work for you?"

The salarian walked over, and picked up the amphibian. Holding it up to the light to get a better look, he poked and prodded it a few times. Apparently satisfied, Mordin nodded, a bit of a gleam appearing in his eye. "Absolutely. Enough to convince me for now. Am curious though. Any particular reason for that Earth amphibian?"

"A few. It's a traditional ingredient in potions. Plus a bit of a joke. And I know that you could rationalize away the creation of fire or ice, or something levitating. An inanimate object suddenly turning inorganic, though, is beyond what anything can do."

The salarian nodded, setting the newt down. "Indeed. Still, would like to observe more spells. Curious as to exactly how you perform. Perhaps your homeward has element zero alternative?" He shrugged. "Still, priorities. Give me a few hours. Need to make sure Daniel recovers, and need to fill him in. Much to do, much to do." He grinned once again. "Will be looking forward to studies." At that, he turned back around and walked over to check on his still sleeping assistant.

Left to his own devices, Harry shook his head and canceled the spell on the newt. As the forceps clattered onto the floor, he turned to the two as they walked out. "Alright, ready to head back?"

The turian shook his head. "Definitely. No point staying here, since we're done." He tapped the side of his helmet, still not having taken it off. "Didn't really get a explore the new girl, besides to pick a berth. Maybe I can find something in the gunnery room to calibrate…"

"Well, I'm going to head off onto shore leave." Harry turned to face Jacob. "I'm assuming we do, since we're still ashore for a few more hours?"

Harry shrugged, before nodding. "I suppose. You'll have to actually remember that I'm Acting Captain in name only. You're the one that's taken care of most of the stuff."

Grinning at him, Jacob laughed. "I suppose so. You just point where you want the ship to go, and we make sure it gets there." Waving off the concerned look on his face, he answered the implied question. "It's fine, don't worry. I thought Miranda would be doing most of this work, but since she's working on Shepard still, I'll be stuck with it for a while. Besides, I finished most of what was needed to be done in the downtime after last mission, so you don't have to worry about anything."

"Alright then, I don't have a problem with it." Outside the clinic, he stopped the two. "Either way, I'd rather not walk through that entire mess again, so let's take another shortcut."

Before he could be interrupted by either of his squadmates, Harry had grabbed their shoulders, stepped, and turned once more.

-oo-

A few hours later, after finally receiving the good doctor on board and showing him to the lab, Harry found himself walking towards the cockpit again. Spotting the capped head of the pilot bobbing slightly, he grinned ruefully and stepped forward, tapping him on the shoulder. The pilot flayed about for a second, eventually finding the mute button on his earpiece, before spinning his chair towards him. "Hey, Merlin! Good to see you again! Should we be telling the Doctor to be counting his toes when he wakes up? I heard there might be some potions brewing up stairs."

Harry rolled his eyes, replying, "Of course not. If anything, you should be looking out. Might cut your tongue out. I suppose you're close enough to a dog, that it should work, correct?"

Joker initially laughed in reply, but said laughter quickly faded as Harry met him only with a serious look. "Uhm, just kidding. I'm no dog, not at all. See, don't even bark."

"Of course you don't." Finally letting his grin slip out, he continued. "Besides, just wanted to tell you to cast off and head towards Korlus. I've already checked and made sure everyone was on board. We need to get this mission underway."

Waving his hand mockingly, Joker just answered, "Yeah, I gotcha, Captain Merlin. But why did you come all the way up here to mention it? That's what the Command Console is for back in the rear of the room."

"Mr. Moreau is correct." The blue sphere of EDI popped up beside Jeff, instantly making the pilot adopt a faint scowl on his face. "The Command and Control Console was installed just so that the Commander of the vessel would be able to issue orders from a central location."

Harry shrugged in response to the computer's statement. "That I understand. But remember, I have no idea how to work the thing. And I don't even have my gloves on me at the moment, so I don't believe I could access it."

The sphere pulsed once before the AI answered. "Understandable. Perhaps in a period of downtime, Mr. Moreau and I could walk you through some of the more basic functions of the ship. However, until then, the current arrangement is acceptable. Perhaps you could even discover why Mr. Moreau is muttering about applying engine grease over my various cameras in the meantime. It is a rather unusual obsession that he has."

"Hey now!" Joker scowled at the AI. "I haven't even done anything. Just because I would like some privacy… And besides, it wouldn't be permanent."

"Oh, I see. Still, vandalism of the ship, of which I am a part, is still against protocol. At least the reasoning is understandable. I thought that it was some due to some other pent up urge, caused by your excessive viewing of reproductive materials in your downtime." At Joker's flat glance, she amended after a few seconds, "That was a joke."

"Riiight. Not very funny. Alright, well, Merlin, this doesn't go past us, understand?" Joker mimed zipping his lips, giving Harry a meaningful look.

Chuckling to himself, Harry just nodded. "Alright Joker, I don't know what you're talking about. Just detach us and set off to that wild black yonder." Waiting a second, he sighed. "Just doesn't have the same ring, does it?"

He shook his head, spinning his seat about. "It sounds good to me. But there's that whole time travel thing." Grinning to himself, he began punching buttons on his console. "Alright, mass reactor is holding steady, drive systems are online. Detaching airlock, a whole lot of other stuff that will boggle your wizard mind… And we're off. Next stop Korlus."

As the red rocks and metal spires of the Omega station gave way to the void beyond them, Harry asked, "Does this ever get old?"

"Hrm, what do you mean?" Joker didn't bother to look up, as he scanned a few of the readouts. "Trim's a little off…"

Harry waved his hand. "Space. You ever get tired of it? Does it get old?"

Taking a few moments to think, he shook his head. "I couldn't really say so. But then again, flying is my life, so it's different to me." He grinned back at Harry. "Why? Already sick of the stars? Who knew that you folk from way back when were so fickle."

"No, not that." Harry shook his head. "Just wondering, I suppose. The Earth seemed so big back then, and with all this…" He waved his arm at the expanse. "I can't even really say."

Joker just nodded to him, the grin slipping of his face. "I think I understand. Don't worry. Earth may have been big, but we knew a lot about it. But this, it goes on for forever. And we know virtually nothing about most of it." He shook his head. "Bah, you're getting me sentimental. Go! Shoo! I'll make sure nothing goes wrong up here. It isn't like we've got anybody following us." He paused. "I just jinxed us, didn't I?"

"No, you didn't. The pricking in my thumbs is just a ghost pain. Pay it no heed."

"Yeah, yeah. I know that one well enough. Something wicked this way comes." Waving him away again, he said, "Go and get busy with something. Maybe a shower. My bridge is starting to smell a little funky. We'll tell you when we get near enough."

Harry just shook his head. "Alright Joker, we'll do it your way. See you in a few hours." Turning to walk away, he stopped momentarily and smelled himself. _Yeah, not _that_ bad, but enough to be known. Alright, shower, nap, showtime. Again._

-oo-

Watching the sleek shape of the Normandy become a pinprick of light in the distance, a woman turned and walked into the corner of the dilapidated hallway. Raising an omnitool to her mouth, she spoke quietly, "Boss? Yeah, it's me. I think we have something."

Waiting a few moments for a reply, she just nodded, short black hair flopping from the motion. "I really do think so. Had a lot of his style. I barely even noticed him on the station. Except when he decided to use Fiendfyre. That was hard to miss."

Suddenly taking her earpiece out and waiting for the shouting to die down, she continued talking. "Yes. That's right. Didn't go out of control, so we're not dealing with a rogue."

A few moments later, she continued. "I can try, but I don't think so. He wasn't very talkative with anyone on the station. Hardly think that being inquisitive will help."

She sighed. "Alright, Boss, will do. Oh, the ship you'll be looking for is the Normandy. New one, apparently." She waited a second. "Yes, like the one from a few years ago. I know you know what it means." Another few seconds passed. "I'll forward you the rest of the information I can. Mentha out."

Disabling the omnitool and composing herself, she walked out of the hallway. Finding herself quickly surrounded by others, she blended into the crowded, never slowing her pace. By the time the crowd dispersed, there was no trace of her to be found.

A/N Well, I'm back. Not much to say in this one, except the obvious that we're finally moving off of Omega. I had a few more events I was thinking of adding in here, but they would have broken up the flow a bit. Either way, we'll be back to everyone's favorite asteroid space station soon enough.

Sorry the wait had been a bit long. I've had other things on my mind, and when I had free time, I found myself succumbing to an archive binge. And now for the friendly warning. Stay away from TVTropes if you value your sanity. And don't click on the links, even if you don't. That way lies madness.

As for anything else, that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Aside from what I'm planning next, naturally. Next stop, Korlus! As always, though, please read and review. Every one is much appreciated!


	8. Two of a Kind

_Sad News from the _**Cirno News Network**_. We'd like to issue a report from our associated news group _**Westurland News. **_It appears that their CEO has turned himself in after admitting to charges of fraud. After spending hours trapped in his office, he emerged from it screaming, before begging the police to take him in. According to eyewitness reports, he was asking them to take him away from the little green monsters with lots of sharp teeth that were coming for all his gold. Currently, he is under psychiatric care at the nearest hospital. In the meantime, we ask, is there a racket of vorcha that has established itself on Earth? Tune in next time to find out!_

_Note: _**Cirno News Network **_and associated publications are produced under the _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****)**_ Any information disseminated by _⑨_ is most likely untrue, and is rebutted by the parent corporation. We express our deepest condolences to _**Westurland News,**_ as they have handled this situation admirably. Perhaps they might even hire some news reporters that are competent. We highly doubt that would occur though._

_This has been a message from _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****) **_and the _**Cirno News Network**_. Remember, _**WE ARE THE STRONGEST!**_ Now, back to your irregularly scheduled fic._

Chapter 8 - Two of a Kind

Once again, Harry found himself standing on the bridge of the _Normandy_, staring out its window. Having not the time to bother with the Command Console, he instead decided to get his glimpse of the planet directly. Staring down at the brown hulk, he had to admit he was not impressed. Turning to the nearest projector, he asked, "EDI, can you tell me about this planet? I can't say I know better, but it looks like a decrepit junk pile from here."

The blue orb appeared, flashing once as it answered. "That description would be mostly accurate, Potter. A large portion of the planet is dedicated to various bone and scrapyards. Various ship remnants cover the majority, and it is known that the various mercenary use the ships as bases for a variety of reasons."

Bringing up a display on the monitor and flashing a picture of an ancient krogan, she continued. "The Krogan warlord Okeer is located on the planet for this reason. He has been recruited one of the resident Blue Suns encampments on the planet. The reason for his employment is unknown. It is noted that Okeer is a veteran of the Krogan Rebellions, and has possibly been researching a cure for the genophage. To that end, there has been speculation that he contacted the Collectors for assistance in procuring said cure."

Harry sighed and nodded. "So, we're looking at a what is essentially a Krogan mad scientist? Why are we recruiting him again?"

The hologram paused, a few pulses flickering over its form. "Okeer has been contacted about information regarding the Collectors. While he did not send a response, Cerberus did receive his location from an unspecified source a few hours afterward."

"So he may be willing to deal with us, or it may be a trap." Harry sighed. "But considering what we're up against, it would be worth it if he was telling the truth. We've already got one scientist, how could having another mad one hurt?" Seeing that the computer recognized that the question was rhetorical, he shook his head and turned to Joker. "So, how do you think we should do this, Joker?"

The man gave a start, before turning his head to face Harry. "You're asking me? I don't know, suppose the usual. Fly down there on a broomstick and turn them all into frogs? I suppose it'd help if they were salarians. They're pretty much frogs already."

Harry rolled his eyes, saying, "No, Joker. I don't have a broomstick with me. I meant how are we getting down there. Are we taking the shuttle, or something?"

Shrugging, the pilot replied, "I suppose, no reason not to. You'll have to hike a ways to the base though. It's not incredibly obvious, but there are static defenses all over this planet. If you're not careful, Instead of a nice leisurely ride to planetoid, you'll become a toasty pancake instead."

"Roger that. EDI, tell the ground team to meet up down in the shuttle bay. We'll be heading out soon."

After a long wait in the elevator, during which Harry hummed an old and strangely familiar tune, he stepped out and into the shuttle bay, only to find that the three team members already waiting for him. Looking incredulously from one to the next, he sighed and shook his head. "Do I want to know how you three managed to make it down here first?"

Looking at each other with a vague amusement, Garrus offered, "Oh, I was already down here. Had some calibrations to do. Something in your magic messed with my suits sensors, and had to get them realigned."

Quickly cutting into Garrus' spiel, Mordin said, "Ladder down in laboratory. Decided was prudent to have knowledge of all routes on ship, standard and nonstandard. Also, much faster than elevator."

Nodding faintly, Harry turned to stare down Jacob. "And what about you?"

The younger man grinned, saying, "Was just waiting for you to show up. Nothing too fancy, sir. It's not like we're trying to one up you or anything." A snicker from the resident turian seemed to rebut his statement. "At least, Mordin and I aren't. As for Garrus here, he seems to be asking to be apparated down to the planet himself, don't you think?"

Harry paused for a moment, before saying, "You know, that could actually work. I've apparated hundreds of miles before. As long as we're close enough, and the _Normandy_ isn't moving much faster than the ground below, it sure is possible." Suddenly brightening, he said, "Wonderful! Garrus, would you like to volunteer to be the guinea pig?"

Having been shut up by the implications of the wizard's musings, he just shook his head. "No… I don't think I would. Thinks anyway though, Harry."

"What a pity. Ah well, into the shuttle. We've got a lot of fun times ahead of us today."

Mordin and Jacob simply nodded their heads and moved in. Garrus, glancing at the shuttle and back, joked back. "Of course, fun times. Maybe you humans _are_ all alike. Shepard seemed to be fond of fun times too." Without saying anything else, he quickly took a spot on the shuttle. Following him inside, he took his own seat as the shuttle's door closed and it took to the air.

As the shuttle began its motionless descent to the planet's surface, Mordin turned to Harry. "Potter, would like to ask something." At his nod, the salarian continued. "Would like to perform some testing at later date. Study your 'magic' more thoroughly. Would you agree to giving tissue samples?"

Thinking about it for a second, Harry shrugged. "I don't see a problem with it. Why are you asking though?"

The salarian hummed to himself, crossing his fingers. "A few reasons. Largest is simple academic curiosity. What makes you different? Can it be measured? Harnessed? Applied? If so, possibilities endless. If not, still may discover something of use. Also could help track down others of your kind, if it is genetic. Mentioned you might be last of your kind? Could possibly work."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Just that? I didn't think you'd be doing it for reasons that altruistic. No offense, Mordin."

"None taken, Potter. Is truly mostly selfish reasoning. Am curious to know. Wish to learn." He breathed inward, before nodding. "Will tell what I need later. After mission."

"Alright Mordin. And lighten up, will you? It's just Harry. You sound a bit like a ferret when you call me that."

Brow raised in surprise, Mordin nodded shortly. "Very well. Will try to remember."

A minute or so after finishing conversation, during which the entire team was double-checking their weapons and other equipment, the door slid open and revealed a blasted and ruined landscape before him. Speaking to no one in particular, Harry remarked, "Are we sure that we got off at the right exit?"

"Quite sure. Objective is straight ahead, in the hull of ancient ship." The scientist stroked his chin. "Interesting. Seems to be of human origin. Odd, considering average age of human vessels is quite young compared to other species'."

Jacob shrugged at the remark, saying, "Well, it doesn't really matter. A secret hideout on a ship is still mostly a secret, no matter which hull they choose." He squinted at the distant object. "I just wish we had a better idea besides marching there."

Harry turned to face Jacob during his spiel, but was distracted by an object behind Jacob. Skirting around the group, he found himself facing what appeared to be the wheel of a vehicle. "Hey, Mordin, come look at this. Perhaps we can use it to get there faster?"

"Hrm? Ah, I see, wheeled vehicle. Yes, should work." Stepping closer, he activated his omnitool and directed it at the vehicle. "Interfacing, yes, should be fine. According to sensors, perfectly operational. Odd. Highly convenient, too. Perhaps a mercenary patrol left it behind? Unlikely to be remnant of salvage yards."

Shrugging, he asked the salarian, "That's good then. I don't suppose you know how to drive it then?"

Before the salarian could answer, Jacob gave one instead. "Sure do. Former Alliance, remember? We all were taught how to drive the Mako during our training."

Suddenly, Garrus stiffened. "Did you say Mako?"

Ignoring the turian, Jacob continued. "It'll be a cinch. As long as there's enough fuel, the thing will run for virtually forever. All wheel drive to, so you don't have to worry about being stuck." He did pause, adding, "It is important to say that's it's _not _a tank. Rather, it would be an infantry fighting vehicle. It's designed for both troop transport and combat, but isn't specialized for either one."

Harry nodded, staring at the machine as Mordin punched a few buttons on his omnitool and the lights flickered on. "Still, this thing is basically a space tank."

"Please tell me we're not going on the Mako."

Still ignoring the turian, Jacob answered. "Pretty much. It's got pretty good kinetic barriers on it too. With someone smart driving, a bullet will never get through." He paused, before adding, "Oh, and it can jump over obstacles thanks to a weak mass effect core built in."

"So it's a _flying_ space tank. Ok, we're definitely taking it." As Jacob and Mordin began to open the hatch and climb in, Harry looked over at Garrus. "So, why shouldn't we be taking it, Garrus? Don't like tanks?"

"No, I like tanks. Nice, steady tanks. That stay on the ground. Tanks that don't climb up mountains, or jump across bottomless gaps." The turian shivered. "And it is even worse when Shepard drives. The first time I rode with him, I had to empty my guts the moment I stepped outside. Good man… but a horrible driver." Shaking himself out of the reverie, he faced Harry. "But there is no way that you're getting me in that monstrosity."

"Oh really. So you're saying that we shouldn't take the space tank."

The turian nodded, seeing that the wizard understood his argument. "Yes, that is what I am saying. Sure, it'll take longer, but it'll be a nice safe walk. No driving over mountains or jumping over buildings. Nothing of the sort. Nice and safe."

Grinning, Harry took out his wand and spun it about his finger. "Let me say it again. You are telling the wizard that we should not take the _flying space tank_."

"Yes, I am. And there is no way you can get me on that thing, even with magic."

-oo-

"I can't believe you got me on this crazy thing."

As the Mako rolled along through the barren wasteland towards the Blue Sun facility, Harry turned to face the turian. "You know, you keep on telling us that. Just because you keep saying that you don't believe something happened, doesn't mean it didn't."

Garrus stared blankly at the wizard. "Oh, I know that much. But it's either that, or complaining about how you stuck me to this chair with your mumbo jumbo. Not counting how you immobilized me to get me in here. All you need are ropes and candles, and you'd have set the mood."

At that, Harry snorted. "Whatever you say, Garrus. So, care to take a glance down that gun's scopes and see if you can see anything coming our way?"

Grumbling to himself, Garrus leaned forward as far as he could, putting his eyes onto the scope of the gun. "Not to much on the visual. Although there is a lot of rough ground ahead. And broken up ship parts. I hope you don't plan on driving through that debris."

"Nah, we won't be doing that." Turning back around to Mordin, who was sitting in the seat next to Jacob, he asked, "Anything on the sensors?"

"Nothing definite, too much debris. Breaking up scanners…" Suddenly, one of the klaxons on the dashboard began blaring. "Take that back! One of ship's ports opening. Appears to be missile launching."

Harry paused, before clambering up behind his two teammates. Staring at the trail of smoke that had appeared a few miles ahead in the distance, he cursed. "Alright then, I guess we'd not be able to survive a hit from that."

"Correct. Mako designed for flanking and maneuver warfare. Is capable of sustaining small and medium arms fire. Not capable of withstanding anti-ship missiles."

"Well, I might know a trick or two to help us. But for now, let's just keep heading forward." Pulling out his wand, he leveled it at the point of light encroaching them.

From back in the turret, Garrus shouted with dread in his voice. "Harry, I hope you realize that here are walls up ahead. Jagged walls made out of ship parts. I don't think we'll be able to get through them."

"I told you Garrus, we're not going through it." Patting Jacob on the shoulder, he ordered, "Take us up Jacob. I want to see this thing fly."

Grinning at the whimper of fear that ensued from the back, Jacob grabbed one of the levers in the cockpit. "Alright, going up then. Next stop: Date with a missile." At that, he pulled the lever down.

In the confined space of the Mako, the thrusters roared as the wheels slipped the surly bonds of garbage below and flew into the smog filled skies. As they did so, Harry couldn't help but let a joyous grin cover his face. "Alright, I _have_ to take this home."

However, he was interrupted from his thoughts by Mordin's shouts. "Harry! Missile is at two miles and closing fast. Would recommend magic or evasion."

Nodding, he waited for the missile to come closer, keeping his wand trained on it the whole time. As the point of light grew larger and larger, he smirked and whispered under his breath.

_Arresto Momentum._

Suddenly, the missile froze in the air, sputtering helplessly even though its nozzle still roared with flames. After a second, gravity began to overcome it, pulling it closer and closer to the ground. Barely a second later, the thrusters on the Mako also cut out, and it slowly fell back to the planet, having crossed a myriad of debris in the process.

Chuckling to himself as the missile clunked to the ground in the distance before exploding with a whimper, Harry shook his head. "Not too bad. I'm surprised they haven't turned the ship guns onto us, though."

"Primary armaments angled for anti-orbital targeting. Unable to decline to proper angle. Is why anti ship missiles were used." Mordin inclined his face to Harry. "Also, casual flaunting of laws of physics, troubling."

Harry grinned down at the salarian. "Actually, us wizards prefer to think of them more as guidelines. But I suppose we should get a move on. Do we know where Okeer is in that ship? Or will we need to comb through the entire structure?"

Mordin shrugged. "Unknown. Included no directions or maps in transmission, merely location on planet. Will be able to hack system once closer though. Should be able to find directions there."

"Alright then, Mordin." Turning to the driver, he said, "Alright Jacob, take us in."

"Roger that." Gunning the gas, the Mako increased in speed, heading towards the structure. Nimbly dodging around the debris field, they arrived at the edge of the facility. "Harry, there appears to be a large outcropping above. It'll be a tight squeeze, but I can fit us in."

Harry nodded to him. "Do it. I'd rather not have to fight through all of these mercenaries. And what's the point of a space tank if you can't use it?" He took a moment to glance back at the turian. "Isn't that right, Garrus?"

"…close my eyes it will end soon. If I close my eyes it will end soon. If I…"

Chuckling, he just shook his head. "I suppose I'll take that as a yes." Turning back, he was able to watch as the tank lifted up from the ground and into the air. Soaring past the platform, he saw as a squad of Blue Suns stared at them as they passed. Seconds later, the Mako reached the height of its jump, and began to fall towards the platform. As its shadow grew, the mercenaries realized what was about to happen, and attempted to jump out of the way. It was of no use to most of them, as the metal wheels of the vehicle crushed their armor and pinned them to the floor, which wobbled at the sudden weight pressed upon it.

As the surviving troopers tried to recover from the destruction of over half of their number, the hatch opened. Pouring out of the back of vehicle were Harry and Mordin. The former immediately apparated to their flank and began showering them with concussive spells, shattering their armor. The latter instead waited for shields to drop from the destruction of their emitters, and placed a bullet between their eyes. Between the two, the remaining mercenaries were quickly sent to their eternal reward.

"Entrance, somewhat dramatic. Nonetheless, appeared effective. Would recommend rapid procurement of Okeer. Reinforcements likely on the way." Replacing his gun back into its magnetic holster, Mordin retrieved his omnitool and began tapping away.

Harry just nodded, and eyed the only door in the vicinity. "Yeah, we don't want to deal with too many. No need to do it." As Mordin continued to search for something on his omnitool, Harry turned back to the Mako. "By the way, are you two going to be coming out?"

An amused voice answered him. "I was just putting the vehicle on standby. However, I don't think Garrus is going anywhere, at least until you undo whatever it was that you did to him."

"Oh." Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "That might be important. Hold on a second." Muttering _Finite_ under his breath, he heard a form slump to the ground, before armored feet pounded their way out of the vehicle.

What could only be described as the largest and happiest dual-toned sigh of relief that Harry had ever heard followed. "Ahhh… Solid land… So happy to be back on it again…"

While amused by the sight, Harry tried to shake Garrus out of his reverie. "You know, we're technically very high off the ground. The land's all the way down there."

"I don't care. Even if thing was made of paper, It'd be much safer than that deathtrap." The turian shot a glare at the vehicle. "Shepard nearly got us killed a few times, the way he drove that thing."

Thinking on how Jacob had driven, Harry shrugged. _After all, if Shepard was as good as everyone says he was, why is his driving considered so terrible? _"It couldn't have been that bad."

Garrus nodded to Harry. "Of course. You're right. It was worse."

"Aha! Got it." At the, the two turned to Mordin, who was looking up from his omnitool. "Landing site most fortunate, as laboratories relatively nearby. Took a few minutes. Security surprisingly decent." He paused, drawing in a breath. "Also, reports of infighting among the mercenaries. Appears to have delayed any response to our intrusion. Should be safe, for a few minutes."

"Alright." Turning back to Garrus, with whom Jacob was now standing, Harry said, "Alright you two. Let's get this Krogan and get out of here. With any luck, we won't have to even shoot anyone"

Nodding to him, the two whipped out their guns and proceeded to move down the catwalks. With Mordin covering their rear, Harry led his squad through the catwalks and platforms that made up that segment of the ship. Fortunately, there were no enemies present, yet there were still sounds of gunfire in the distance wherever they walked.

Fortunately, Mordin's statement as to where the labs were located proved accurate. Flanking the doors, Harry triggered the sensor and the four walked in, guns and wand at the ready. The only thing in the room, however, was a single krogan punching away at the terminal, barely taking the time to look up at them.

"Hrm. You've arrived faster than I expected, human." His ancient voice echoed throughout the room, tinged with dark amusement. "I doubt Jedore ever expected to find her defenses breached by a tank flying over them."

Harry lowered his wand, but kept it at the ready. As Mordin stepped up to take a closer look at the tank beside the krogan, he replied, "Neither did some of my team. But first things first. Are you Okeer?"

"Hrmph. That I am, human. You must be the…_ replacement_ that the Illusive Man spoke of. For you're no Shepard." He turned around, staring down at the smaller human. "I'd say that you do not appear nearly as impressive. But no matter. I suppose you are here about the Cerberus deal?"

Harry nodded to him. "I suppose you are willing to come along, still? We know that you sent that message to us, telling where you were located."

The krogan harrumphed and turned away. "Why else would I have sent it human? To bring you into a trap? I am only working for Blue Sun because I could use them to my own purposes. But if you wish to procure my services, there is one thing I require." At that, he gestured to the tank that Mordin was observing. "I need my masterpiece secured. I trust that you are willing to assist?"

At that, the salarian started. "Masterpiece? This is a krogan, bred. Cloned." The salarian turned to Okeer, with narrowed eyes. "Major violation of Council laws. You are performing experiments to cure the genophage?"

Laughing softly, the hulking krogan stared down at Mordin. "You might say that. But not in the manner that you are thinking of. I do not desire mindless hordes. They did not win us the rebellions." He turned to look up at the krogan in the tank. "Instead, I have been attempting to create a stronger krogan. Not one who tries to defeat the genophage by numbers, but by being stronger, tougher, perfect. A krogan that will simply ignore it."

"Implications, troubling." The salarian looked conflicted for a moment. "Physiology appears to match claims. No noticeable deformities. Also, larger than normal for krogan this age." He turned to Okeer. "Even without violation of laws, strain of DNA could be exceedingly dangerous if allowed to mate." He shook his head. "Still, suppose is not my decision."

"Indeed, salarian, it is not." Facing down Harry, he said, "So, is that acceptable to you, human? For my assistance, the safety of my masterpiece. My prototype."

Looking at Mordin, who seemed to be especially interested in the decision, Harry shrugged his shoulders. "Frankly, we need the help. I know your kind are good fighters, and it sounds like you're a scientist from what you've done." He nodded his head. "Very well. Can we get him out of here now?"

"Yes, it should be almost ready to move. A few more minutes, and it can be safely disconnected." As he turned back to the console, a voice sounded from an unseen speaker system.

"Attention, everyone. This is Jedore. The krogan release was traced to Okeer. He's apparently decided to jump ship on us. Gas him, and his accomplices. We'll start over from the data." As she finished her statement, a small hiss issued as a gas began to be poured into the rooms.

The krogan snarled, clenching his fists and swinging them towards the nearest window, before catching himself. "Damned woman. I gave her everything she asked for. And now she'll destroy everything I've worked for, with a valve?" He turned to Harry. "Go, human, kill her. She's on the lower level, with the remnants of the I'll… remain here, and do what needs to be done." Grimly, he looked away, back up at the tank.

Harry's eyes widened as he realized what Okeer intended to do. _He wants to sacrifice himself to save that krogan._ Spinning about, he shouted at Jacob, "Go now! Take Mordin and Garrus. I need you to take out that mercenary." After the other man tossed a quick salute, breaking out his gun as the three ran to the far exit, Harry waved his wand, creating a shimmering bubble that surrounded the two. "I've seen enough people sacrifice themselves to save what they believed in. If it matters that much to you, I think you'd rather see this project through."

The krogan eyed the barrier nonplussed, before shrugging it off and turning back to his computer. "That I would. But given the choice, it is much more important than I am. A relic cannot change the galaxy. But his legacy might be able to." Turning back to the console, he began hammering out more instructions. Dare I ask what you are, human? That was no biotics, right there."

Harry grinned. "I am the very antithesis of science. But let's save introductions for later." Walking over to the edge of the window, his grin faded from his face as he stared down at the ensuing battle. "Two YMIR? Nasty things."

"Why do you think a mercenary would use them then? If they were weak, she'd not bother." Okeer scoffed. "And if you aren't going to help, do not begin with the commentary. Such prattle is pointless."

"Maybe it is." Harry eyed the robots down below. _Last time I had to brute force my way through their defenses, but they were still susceptible to simple jinxes. I wonder…_ Eying a bit of rubbish that had fallen to the wayside during the battle, he waved his wand. Suddenly, the head of the YMIR mech had taken its place, while the garbage now sat upon the sparking stump of the mechanized creation. As its head had been lost, it fell to its knees and began flashing, before creating its signatory sizable explosion on the field below.

Harry shook his head almost mockingly, before repeating the action with the second YMIR. "This is almost sad. I thought that they might be a bit hard to transfigure. But this makes me wish I had tried this out sooner."

"Heh, whatever it was human, it worked." The krogan looked down at him from his workstation. "Definitely not biotics. You don't think like a soldier. More like an assassin. Destroying your foes before they are aware of your existence."

"You don't approve?"

Okeer shrugged. "The krogan in me doesn't approve. But that is the same krogan in all of my kind that has been driving my species extinct. That is why I am performing this work. But I can certainly say I don't disapprove." He did pause and look up. "It doesn't have the same visceral feeling of satisfaction, however."

Harry shrugged. "To each his own." As the krogan tapped one final button, the tube hummed with power and began to float out of its slot in the wall, a blue mass effect field issuing from the bottom. "I suppose you're ready?"

The krogan nodded. "I am. The filtration will automatically began to filter out the gas, so you will not have to worry about holding your breath." As he spoke, one last shot rang out from below, muffled by the wall between them and the combat zone. Turning, Okeer saw the leader of the Blue Suns fall over, clutching at a bloodstained hole in her stomach. At the sight, a truly vicious grin covered his face. "And that is the last loose end out of the way."

As if he was jinxed, though, the coughing voice of Jedore issued once more from the loudspeakers. "Damn… He's going to get away, I won't have it. Fire the all of the remaining missiles, but don't open… open the blast shields. If I'm going down, I'm gonna… gonna bring him with me." Eyes widening, the two waited a few seconds, until a loud explosion shook the entire room.

"Damned woman… That won't destroy this ship outright, but it's going to fall, sooner or later. I hope you still have a way out of here." Okeer's eyes were darting back and forth between Harry and his pod, seemingly concerned for the first time.

As his three squadmates returned, Harry nodded shortly. "We did leave it parked outside. But we should get moving. Your prototype needs to get out of here." Turning to his team, he shouted, "Jacob, Mordin, get back to the Mako. Get it ready to leave! Garrus, get over here, we're gonna get this tube out of here."

As the other human and salarian dashed out of the room, Garrus ran over to Harry. As they did, Okeer grabbed the side of the test tube and began dragging its floating form across the room. Directing Garrus to grab the other side, Harry put his hands on the back and began pushing it as quickly as he could.

The three of them made their way through the catwalks to where the Mako was parked. However, Okeer's rather optimistic prediction was quickly dashed by the sight of falling debris from the top of the structure. Shutting it out, the three managed to haul the device all the way back to the Mako, whose back hatch was lowered and waiting for them.

Pushing Harry aside, Okeer claimed the rear spot on the tube and pushed it up the hatch. Unfortunately, it was too large to go in upright, and so had to be lowered. As it was laid horizontally, its mass effect field cut out, and the entire thing clattered to the floor. With a grunt, Okeer gave the thing one last shove and forced it in, barely inside the door.

After doing so, he managed to squeeze himself in on one side of the prototype. Harry himself climbed in on the other side, Garrus right behind him. Shouting over the low roar of the ship slowly collapsing, he tried to get Jacob to move the vehicle. However he was met only by Jacob's shaking head. "We're too heavy! The thrusters will give out before we'd be able to make it out of here."

Sweating slightly at the groan of metal shearing from metal, he replied, "Are you sure? We have to get out of here!"

Jacob just shouted back, "Unless you can make it weightless or use some magic to get us out of here, we're screwed!"

Harry's eyes widened, before he slapped himself on the head. _Idiot… Didn't even think of that. A featherweight charm might do it… But we'd still be in a collapsing ship._ As a large beam fell down in front of him, a tired smile stretched over his face. "Well, they do say fortune favors the bold. Next stop: the _Normandy_." At the confused and worried looks of his squadmates, he only shook his head. Pulling his wand out and placing it on the Mako, he tapped once while firmly incanting.

_Portus_.

A second went by, with nothing happening. Suddenly, the familiar hook behind his navel took hold, and the tank began to spin. The metal of the collapsing ship gave way to that familiar void.

Minutes later, as the others finally realized to simply close their eyes and wait it out, a groan sounded through the tank. Suddenly, the bottom of the Mako dropped out, and it collapsed onto a floor, still spinning. As metal wheels screeched against metal paneling, the revolutions slowed down, before the tank came to a rest. After a few seconds, the hatch popped open with a hiss, revealing the scarred interior of a rather familiar cargo hold.

Nearly laughing at his success, he looked over at Okeer, eyes wide at what just happened. "I am pleased to welcome you to the Normandy. Please enjoy your stay."

-oo-

"Mr. Potter, I would ask in the future that any experiments with magic to please be located outside the ship. While the damage is rather minor, I would still prefer to prefer it never happened."

Harry nodded tirelessly at the nearest speaker. "Alright, alright, EDI, I gotcha. It wasn't like we planned on damaging the ship. That's just the way it happened. Would you rather we have died, instead of damaging your ship?"

"No, Mr. Potter. I would put the lives of all crew members above the well being of myself, and that includes you." A blue light formed over a projector, staring down at Harry sitting on his couch. "However, if not for my sake, at least for Mr. Moreau's sake. He has already ranted plenty about wizards tearing up his 'baby'. As I do not wish my pilot to suffer an aneurysm, perhaps you could be more careful in the future?"

Cracking a grin, Harry finally nodded. "Alright, I suppose I can. How is Okeer settling in, along with his prototype?"

The orb flashed, before speaking. "They appear to be doing well. Okeer has been setting up power leads to the prototype. With them in place, he no longer would need to run them off of batteries." Pausing momentarily, the AI continued. "I inquired earlier if he would be opening the prototype, but he declined to answer. From all appearances, he wishes to keep it in stasis until he is satisfied that it is ready."

Harry nodded absently, a look of relief washing over his face. "Good. I can tell he'll be a handful if he's anything like Okeer. And having two krogan on board…" He shrugged. "It could be worse. We could have two trolls instead."

"…Of course." Harry nearly cracked a grin. It seemed like the computer wasn't quite willing to contemplate everything he had said. Either that, or it believed humoring him was the best modus operandi. "Moving on, the Mako you recovered is more or less intact. However, several of its electronic circuits were fried in the transit between the planet and the ship. It seems like whatever spell you used caused the damage."

"Probably. Magic and electronics don't seem to get along very well. And since that spell infuses magic into the object…" Harry shrugged. "That's why nothing else probably fried. I'm still surprised that pod survived the transit, though."

"Krogan hardware is notorious for being extremely reliable. If Okeer had a hand in designing the pod, it is likely that he made it to last."

_Or maybe since the pod wasn't technically part of the Mako, the magic didn't spread? Who knows. It seems to have worked either way, so I shouldn't really complain._ "Alright, EDI, sounds good enough to me. Is there anything else?"

Once more, the blue orb flashed. "Dr. Solus would like me to remind you to see him down in the science bay. He has requested your presence to assist him with some tests, as we are in transit to our next objective. Besides that, there is nothing of concern at the moment."

Sighing at the thought of testing, Harry nodded to the orb. "Thanks EDI, I'm on my way." Standing up, he shed his robes and laid them on his seat as he sought the elevator. One excessively long ride later, and he found himself next to the lab, and Mordin muttering to himself over various inanities.

Unsure if he should interrupt the salarian, in case he was in the middle of some important work, Harry leaned on a nearby wall. After a few minutes, he coughed once, trying to quietly garner Mordin's attention.

He was successful. "Oh! Harry, good to se you've arrived. Was just finishing initial research on Collector swarms. Very interesting indeed. Too early to tell preventative methods, but will inform you once further progress is made."

Nodding, Harry said, "Ok. But what did you want me for?"

Mordin raised his hand up to stroke his chin. "Was curious as your powers, as stated before. Such a thing is unknown amongst all other races. Indeed, up until now, was unknown among humans." He paused, before asking, "Do you have any speculation as to why that might be?"

Harry shrugged. "Not really. Back during my time, I tried to help the wizarding world grow closer to the nonmagical world. At the time, the heads of states knew of us, along with any nonmagical relatives, but not beyond that."

"Hrm, interesting." Mordin tapped his chin, pondering the information. "Indeed, is very odd. You are saying it was not a complete secret, but one that was fairly well known. But in the intervening span, everyone disappeared. Why would they do that?"

"I am not sure… If they continued my work directly, they should have integrated within a few decades. It might have been that some of the older families tried to regain control." Harry paused, sighing. "Our society was very hierarchal. While nominally a democracy, many of the seats were hereditary. And those that weren't could easily be bought off. It didn't help that the wizarding world was a hundred years behind the muggle world in development, at the best. A lot of my time was simply trying to get them to catch up."

Mordin was nodding along, before something caught his attention. "Muggle world? Another name for nonmagical world? Appears to be slightly derogatory."

Harry flushed, ears burning red. "It is, one born of habit instead of anything else. I've grown too used to using it… it's why I try to use the other term."

Mordin shook his head at harry. "No, no, is completely understandable. Shouldn't happen, but it does. From sound of it, spent many years among those that had less than savory views of those without magic?"

"On top of spending an entire war fighting them."

"Ah, that would explain it." Mordin nodded, as if answering his own question. "Was curious exactly why Illusive Man went to such lengths. Shepard was the best soldier in the Alliance, but would not have been impossible to replace. To go to such lengths is unimaginable." He stroked his chin. "Curious as to how Cerberus retrieved you. Might you have any idea?"

Shaking his hand back and forth, Harry offered, "Not to much. Not that big on temporal mechanics, remember? However, it is possible that they found some time turners and extracted the sand from them, and used it in some manner."

Raising one of his brows, Mordin asked, "Time turner? Curious. Powered by sand that you mention?"

"Yes, it's essentially an hourglass. It has a fancy base, typically, but I don't believe there is any magic in that part." Harry frowned to himself. "Every time you turn it and let the sand fall, it moved us back an hour in time."

"Hrm, interesting. So _movement_ of sand triggered temporal rift? Perhaps if manipulated with a mass effect field…" H shook his head. "Bothersome. Will work out possible mechanics later. Need to get back to original point. So, you believe they went back into hiding after you left?"

Harry offered Mordin a week grin. "I thought you said you didn't like temporal mechanics?" Sighing, he continued. "No, actually, I don't think they did. We spent a lot of time modernizing our society. But that was just one country, not an entire world. And we were ahead of a good majority of them in the process."

"Ah, had forgotten about that aspect. Your planet still has separate countries. Would imagine how separate they would be, back then." He paused, tapping a finger on a nearby table. "Were any countries particularly hostile to the move? Might have started troubles. Although, would have been a complete secret. No truly major wars on your home planet in about a century."

"I worked mainly in my own Ministry. Off the top of my head, the Russians and Chinese gave us trouble. Mostly due to how their magical populations had been decimated in purges before. The African states were always squabbling, as a warlord would manage to take control of one, launch a war, and be destroyed. Rinse and repeat."

Harry scratched his chin. "On the other hand, the Commonwealth advanced along with us, so that's roughly half of the countries in the world. The only other thing that comes to note are the remnants of the United Magical States. Nearly all of them detested their neighbors, so it was hard to make any true peace. The Tri-States helped the most, although it was pure practicality for them. They were the site of most of the battles."

Mordin nodded along absently. "Indeed. But nothing sounded truly out of place. Not many had great reservations about such a merger?" Humming to himself, he asked, "Would the discovery of mass effect have changed anything?"

Pondering for a moment, Harry replied, "I don't know. But if it were I, I'd see it as a way for the nonmagicals to perform something close to what we are capable of. So there wouldn't be as many of the old worries of being hunted down."

"Hunted down? Interesting. Had heard of witch hunts in human history, of course, but hadn't imagined them to be real." He breathed inward sharply. "Still, known evidence leaves a few answers. Either they remained in hiding, left, or were simply destroyed."

Shrugging, Harry shook his head. "Possibly. But it's not much of use to be arguing over what may be." Mentally wondering the time, he asked Mordin, "Was there anything else you wanted to know?"

The scientist salarian grinned at him. "Lots I wish to know. However, will keep questions to a minimum for moment. Wanted to discover what you are capable of. Have personally seen your power used to change objects from one to another, and also to transport us long distance. Not to mention a few spells for combat. However, rest of abilities less clear. Garrus mentioned something about fire?"

At the reminder of that even, Harry's expression darkened. "Yes, Fiendfyre. It's a destructive spell. Particularly dark. Magic doesn't like me using it. But something like it's necessary, sometimes." He thought for a second. "As for the rest of the spells, there are a few of note. I can transfigure a lot of things into one another. A permanent transfiguration, though, takes a lot of energy. Same with transfiguring a person into something else. It's like… moving something heavy. It takes a lot of effort to push it, but once you get it going, it still will move as fast. It just takes a lot of energy."

"Interesting." Mordin seemed to be tapping a few buttons on the nearby terminal. "Sorry, was merely recording conversation. Much simpler than taking notes. But your explanation is remarkably similar to inertia. Still, what could give object inertia? What makes a person less susceptible to transfiguration?"

"It's probably their soul."

Mordin blinked for a few seconds. "Souls? They exist?" At Harry's nod, he continued his musing. "Hrm, very intriguing. If true, settles a lot of philosophical debate that has consumed all for centuries… Especially if could discover what happens after death."

Harry grinned at the man. "Well, I can tell you it doesn't hurt that much. OF course, that was probably because of the spell used, and by that point, I was beyond caring about any additional pain… But I had a job to come back and finish."

For a few moments, the doctor was speechless. Eventually he shook his head, trying to get it around the concept. "Very… interesting. Perhaps that is the true reason the Illusive Man wanted you? Someone else who has cheated death? Could work with Shepard once they revive him."

At that, Harry shrugged. "Maybe. I've my own concerns about that. But I wouldn't say I cheated death… Rather, I took advantage of an excess amount of soul that a dark lord accidentally put in me."

"That sounds rather farfetched, even for magic. Extra pieces of souls? That sounds ludicrous. If not dangerous…"

Harry nodded. "It _is_ very dangerous. To split one's soul is one of the most horrible things you can do with magic. And by doing so, one becomes less than human…" He shuddered, before reaching for a hand that wasn't there. "I couldn't even call the man who killed me human, so far he had fallen."

Noticing his reaction, Mordin suddenly nodded. "Right. Will have time enough to ask later. Still, you've given much to me much to think about. Perhaps later, you can demonstrate spell work? Would like to gauge effectiveness."

"Alright, sounds good Mordin." Harry blinked, before shoving his hands in his pockets. "It doesn't bother me too much. Still, would like to forget those days sometimes."

The scientist looked away. "You are not only one with a past he'd like to forget. Was not on Omega for no reason, after all." Shaking his head, he looked back at Harry. "Until next time."

A/N Shorter chapter here, but one just as important. I wanted to take a different route for recruiting Okeer, as I didn't want to copy and paste the majority of the actual missions into text form. And I wanted to give Harry a Mako. So I decided to have one that included both. Maybe not the best of ideas, so I'll have to wait for ya'll to review. Did you enjoy the Mako, or should I leave it on the sidelines from here on out? It'll come back again, but I'm debating when it'll be.

On the other hand, the most important part of the chapter. One I've been planning for quite a while. We have Okeer and his prototype, instead of just Grunt. I'm listing it that way, as there is a distinction. Remember, Grunt doesn't have a name. And since Okeer is around, he probably won't have the same one. Of course, I have one planned out… But probably isn't what you're expecting. We'll see, either way. In the meantime, we have our crazy krogan mad scientist to butt heads with Mordin! Fun times for all!

Other then that, we have some more discussion with Mordin on the wizards. What did indeed happen… We'll find out soon enough, I suppose. In the meantime, please read and review as always!

Oh, one last thing. I have a poll up on my profile page. It's in relation to this story, and I would really appreciate ya'll voting on it. No, I am not going to tell you what it's about. But it is relatively important either way. To quote Mordin, though, until next time!


	9. Echoes of an Enemy

_Breaking News from the _**Cirno News Network**_! Ace reporter Khalisah al-Jilani from associate news group _**Westurland News **_has just reported that a group of Volus traders has been found smuggling contraband goods. Said goods include a collection of oddly labeled materials. Along with various normal materials such as aconite, other materials labeled as oddly as dragon's blood and fairy wings. This has us here wondering, why would there be a demand for something such as dragon's blood? There are no such things as dragons, as our new pointy-toothed vorcha overlords are keen to remind us._

_Note: _**Cirno News Network **_and associated publications are produced under the _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****)**_ Any information disseminated by _⑨_ is most likely untrue, and is rebutted by the parent corporation. Perhaps our dear associates would like to do some more research into their subject before broadcasting. And should we send a memo informing them that those creatures are not vorcha? …Nah, this is more amusing._

_This has been a message from _**Nineball Corp. (****⑨****) **_and the _**Cirno News Network**_. Remember, _**WE ARE THE STRONGEST!**_ Now, back to your irregularly scheduled fic_

Chapter 9 - Echoes of an Enemy

"EDI, remind me why we're heading to a _prison_ in space to recruit our next party member?"

The blue orb beside Harry flashed. "The next objective is the acquisition of the biotic known as Jack. There is little known about her, except that she is possibly the most powerful human biotic in human ever, and that she has a rather lengthy criminal record."

Harry sighed, and rubbed his eyes again. Leaning against the bulkhead of the bridge, he stared out into space at bright speck. "Are you sure she is guilty of her crimes? I wouldn't imagine Cerberus to be the most altruistic of organizations, and voluntary spring an innocent person."

The orb seemed to shake from side to side before answer. "No. Criminal history is years long, and contains numerous small errors. Most likely, any forgeries would be perfect." The AI paused momentarily. "Of course, I could always be wrong. Perhaps you should ask her when you do meet her."

Again, he sighed before nodding. "Alright, so we're picking up a criminal, since she's simply that good at what she does." He paused for a moment. "But, how come we're having to deal with Blue Suns again? Last I checked, we blew up one of their facilities not even a day ago. Yet, here we are playing all nice? How do we know they aren't going to just try and keep us as prisoners?"

This time, the response was from Joker, who had been idly messing with a few of the controls on the console. "They're mercenaries, remember. They go with whoever pays the highest. And Cerberus really wants this 'Jack', so they will deal with them." He gave a small shrug. "Besides, technically, you killed very few of the Blue Suns. The rest was done by either released krogans or Jedore setting off the base herself. Since it sounded like she was preparing to go rogue, you might have even done the group a favor."

"Still, that does not excuse a lack of caution." The AI seemed slightly miffed at Joker for taking away her exposition. "While there is indeed no reason to believe that this group will do anything untoward, the opposite is also true. Although, given your abilities, I believe that any attempt at restraining you would fail spectacularly."

Harry chuckled. "True. They never would think of apparition, would they?" Still, he shrugged. "But that's making the assumption that there aren't any wizards around, or assisting Blue Suns. The idea is a bit farfetched, considering I haven't seen the signs, but it would still do well to avoid making the assumption. Wouldn't want to make an arse out of us, anyways."

"Indeed." Pausing for a moment, EDI said, "Also, I have just received docking clearance from the station, along with a message from the warden. He would like for you to keep the number of party members to a minimum. He says that a number of outsiders would make his crew uneasy, and could provoke an uproar among the few prisoners that you encounter."

Stroking his chin, Harry replied, "I suppose I can see his point of view. But why would any prisoners react?" He looked out at the rapidly encroaching dot in the sky. "Not like there would be much room. Small corridors would prevent any extra firepower in the event something did break out. But I'd like to avoid anything like that, so…" He shrugged. "Inform Garrus to meet us at the exit ramp. Is Okeer down with his prototype, or is he currently assisting Mordin?"

"The latter, Potter."

"Good, I'll go a collect him real quick. For some reason, everyone likes to wear their armor everywhere, so he should be mostly ready."

At that, Joker laughed, turning back from his console. "He's a krogan, Potter."

Harry chuckled and shook his head. "I suppose that would make him a special case? At least he seems to have the brains to back up his brawn. I imagine the species tends to just like to fight, eat, and sleep all the time." He paused. "Reminds me of a wizard I was once friends with." He snorted. "Bah, old memories. I'll grab him, so we can get this over with."

Leaving the bridge, Harry made his way through the ship back to the science bay. Giving a wave to Kelly, who was standing around sorting through various messages with nothing better to do, he walked into the lab to find the salarian debating with the Krogan.

"Unacceptable! No need to waste samples like that. Brute force methods inelegant, unsophisticated!"

The krogan merely grinned at the smaller alien. "Of course they're inelegant, but they're also effective. Sure, you can do your measly projections, but the only way to _ensure_ results is through live testing."

Mordin sniffed. "True, results never known until procedure carried out. Still, is possible to minimize possible side effects beforehand. Reduce undue suffering."

"Heh, ironic for your kind to talk about reducing suffering." The eye on the side of the krogan's head turned to look at the newcomer, even though he still was facing Mordin. "Potter, nice of you to join us. Is there something you need? Or would you kindly tell this salarian to let me get back to my experiments?"

Deciding to ignore the earlier conversation, Harry jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "There is. We're about to be docking to pick up a new crewmember. I'm hoping it will go well, but I'm taking you and Garrus along with me. Our track record with the Blue Suns hasn't been the best, after all."

Okeer turned to face Harry, staring down the human. "So, you're to use me as muscle, rather than as a scientist?" Suddenly, he smirked, the wide crocodilian grin somewhat disconcerting. "I suppose I might as well. If things do deteriorate, a fight is always a good way to relax. Besides, it might give the salarian time to consider my views." With that, he stomped out of the lab in the direction of the armory.

Mordin shook his head again, and headed back to the console. "Insufferable. Once denied existence of krogan scientists. But apparently, treat the art as they do everything else."

Harry raised an eyebrow, deciding not to immediately meet back up. "You alright there, Mordin? You seemed a bit perturbed."

The salarian's eyes darted back and forth. "Somewhat. Krogan obviously brilliant, has millennia of experience to back him up. However, methods quite gruesome. Obviously breaches many Council laws. Not to mention ethical ones." He paused, voice taking on an odd tone. "Still, will admit, was quite successful. Krogan he created purest example I have seen."

Snorting softly, Harry shrugged. "Somehow, you seemed impressed in spite of yourself."

Mordin pondered for a moment. "Perhaps. Like I said, krogan scientists… Unheard of. But possibilities for study… Salarians incredibly short-lived. Learn quickly, but also die quickly. Krogan live until killed. The research that could be done, if I had the time."

"You almost sound as if you're jealous, Mordin."

The salarian just shook his head. "Perhaps, but being honestly. My kind lives longer than only vorcha. If I could live so long, could only imagine what I could do. Yet, Okeer spends his time using brute force methods to quickly achieve goals. Perhaps is krogan within him. Still, seems like such a waste."

Harry almost replied, but was interrupted by the noise of the Normandy connecting with the docking tube. "I suppose that's my cue." He turned, before looking back over his shoulder. "I know he's unpleasant, but it can't hurt to have him help. Just make sure to remind him that you're in charge up here. Temporary Captain's orders."

A small grin came over the scientist's face. "Will remember, Harry. Good luck. Hopefully, no violence will be required."

"I hope so too." He shook his head and muttered to himself. "Perhaps we'll be lucky, and the guards decide not to do anything stupid."

-oo-

"Welcome to Purgatory, Potter. Your package is currently being prepped, and you may take delivery of it shortly. As this is a secure vessel, we require you to relinquish all weapons before proceeding."

Sighing, Harry turned to eye his partners out of the corner of his eye. Garrus had once again decided to forego his helmet, and was giving the turian guard a beady eye. Okeer on the other hand seemed to have decided to use his unsettling grin on every person in the room. Staring at the faceless goon, Harry just shook his head. "It's a good thing that I don't need to be armed then. And these two are merely here for my protection. Now, can we please get on with this?"

The guard glanced back at the others, before starting to speak. He was interrupted, however, by a soft voice behind him. "That won't be necessary. Now, Potter…" Another turian stepped out from behind the guard. _I suppose he's in command of this station, considering he's not wearing a helmet. Is that considered some sign of importance? Still doesn't protect him from getting shot_.

The guard stared down at Harry for a few minutes before nodding. "Wouldn't you agree that our visitor shows a great deal of trust in coming unarmed? Let us share the same trust with him, and let his companions in." His aside was met by hasty affirmations, while the turian beckoned Harry onward. "I'm Warden Kuril, in charge of this facility. Come along, and we can have this handled promptly."

Nodding slowly, Harry and his two teammates followed the turian through the door. As they passed through the door, Harry found himself in a suspended corridor, overseeing a large room full of small receptacles. As they passed, one of the large arms descended from the ceiling and grabbed the nearest container. With mechanical precision, it extracted the container and spun about, placing it on the ground floor of the large room.

"Impressive, is it not?" The turian turned about. "This is cellblock two. Each of those cells is a modular unit, allowing the prisoners to be controlled quite well. I've had a few blown out the airlocks as an example." They passed through the door, as the warden continued to extol the virtues of the station. How there house thousands of criminals, the worst of the worst across the galaxy. That planets across the galaxy pay to have them shipped there, out of sight and out of mind. For a nominal fee. _So, still appears to be a mercenary group, no matter what colors they paint on their flag._

After the turian took pleasure in describing the lockdown systems, Harry decided to break into the conversation. "So, what can you tell me about Jack?"

Suddenly, Kuril paused and turned about, eyes suddenly shimmering in fear. "Cerberus… hasn't told you? She's the meanest and most violent piece of hate that I've ever encountered." He shook his head, and turned back around. "You'll see soon enough." He paused, and checked his omnitool. "We're about to begin her extraction, of which I'm supervising personally. Follow me to the control terminals."

The four began to make their way through the corridors. Wincing at the sight of guards beating some of the prisoners, Harry nearly stopped, before a sharp look from the warden had him moved onward.

It was a look that Garrus did not miss. As Harry began to hang back, he said, "I'm surprised. I'd have expected you to react stronger to that."

Harry avoided the turian's eyes. "So did I. But if these people did a tenth of what they're suggesting, they probably still deserve it." He shook his head. "Besides, I've gotten used to what my kind does to our prisoners. It's a lot worse than this could ever be."

The turian cocked his head at that. "Worse than this? I hadn't imagined humans being that… oh, wizards. Right." He still shook his head. "If they're anything like you, I still don't see…"

"Because I was a bit of an anomaly myself, remember?" He shook his head. "You have to remember, there are monsters out there worse than what you've seen. Creatures that can consume the soul, that consume the very essence of happiness from their prey." Chancing a glance back at the prisoners, he shuddered. "Those things are rather unpleasant."

Garrus took that moment to look away, and they caught back up to the warden. A few minutes later, they had finally reached their dead end in a room overlooking another large bay area, with a fortified capsule on the ground in front of them. The warden turned about, and looked at Harry. "This is where we keep the most dangerous of all criminals, such as the biotics." He waved one of the other humans about to the terminal, where he began to type. "Along with extra strong alloyed metal to contain the prisoners, we keep them placed in cryo-storage. Not exactly the safest for long term solutions, but it prevents them from becoming conscious at any time."

Harry walked over and stared down at the container, noting the frost pour out of its edges. "I don't doubt it. But still, what if they become conscious? Isn't there the chance that biotics could still escape?" _Especially one noted to be the strongest of human biotics._

The warden clicked his mandibles together. "They could. But that is why we install a control chip into their biotic amplifier. It completely nullifies their powers, as long as it remains within broadcast range, and has the correct code transmitted." He paused, glancing down at the container, and back up at Harry. "Are you… sure you want to do this? I will not personally hold it against you if you wish to leave Jack here."

Shaking his head, Harry said, "No, I'm actually not sure. But we've come all this way. And call it morbid curiosity, but I want to see what this person can do."

Kuril shrugged. "Very well. Thaw her out."

A few more keystrokes from the technician, and the machinery in the chamber began to dance. Another of the arms descended from above, and latched onto the top of the capsule. Rotating the lid, the capsule clicked as it was detached from the floor. It began to rise slowly, revealing the form of a small human woman inside, bald and covered with tattoos. And nearly naked.

Okeer seemed to be intrigued with the sight. "So, the most powerful human biotic is a female? Amusing."

As she began to regain conscious, Harry shot him a look. "Maybe. But if biotics are anything like my kind, size isn't everything."

A quiet harrumph was all the reply he got. By this point, the woman's eyes had jerked open, and she was looking dumbly at the scene in front of her. Unseen to Harry, a group of YMIR mechs had approached her from the front, keeping their cannons sighted on her body. Recognizing the situation, she growled, and yanked her fists up, summoning a weak purple aura.

As the girl continued to struggle and begin to shout, the warden faced Harry. "Be glad that this area has been soundproofed, or you'd be wishing that it was. But now that you've seen her, are you satisfied enough? And do you want us to transport her to your ship?"

Quietly, Harry stared down at her. Coming to a decision, he said, "No. I want to go down and talk to her. See if I can get her to come willingly."

"That's a fool's errand, Potter. She'll never listen to you." Still, the turian shook his head, waving him towards the nearest door. "It's your decision, though. After all, Cerberus has already transferred the money."

Nodding his thanks to the warden, he turned to the other two. "Just wait here. As long as that chip is active, she'll be under control. I'll be back before you know it." With that, Harry walked out the door, and down the stairways into the corridor.

As he did, he was met by a most colorful recitation of the more salacious aspects of the English language. "-my hands on your shit-slinging pyjack balls, I'll rip em-" Taking the moment to block out the sound, Harry made a point to audibly walk up to her, attracting the attention of the woman.

She fixed him with an incredibly spiteful glare. "Well, look who we have here. A poor little fucking boy in a dress. Are you lost, you little shit? Come to gawk at the pussy little prisoner, when she can't do anything?" She suddenly grinned at him. "Well, take a good long look. It's probably the most naked you've ever seen a woman before."

Rolling his eyes, Harry walked up the steps. "Hardly. I'll make sure the wife meets you. She'll gladly correct you. But I'm not here to trade jabs." He stared her down, looking up as she was still suspended in her prison. "I've come here to recruit you."

"Fucking likely you have. Probably just want to use me in some sort of piss poor experiment." Sneering, she asked, "Who sent you? I know a pussy like you isn't going to come here on your own volition. Who had the fucking great idea to recruit someone like me?"

Harry simply answered, "Cerberus."

Jack's eyes widened, before she did the only thing she could. She spat in Harry's face. "Fuck **No**. I'm not going to work with any Cerberus group, if I have my way. They can all fuck off, as far as I'm concerned."

Wiping the spit off of his face with a sleeve, Harry continued to try and speak to her. "That's nice. But there are bigger things to worry about. Human colonies are disappearing, and Cerberus is the only one doing anything about it."

Laughing softly in his face, Jack replied, "So? What does that have to do with me? You just sound like a fucking cheerleader for Cerberus."

"So what? I don't really care about the organization. And the more I learn about it, the less I care." Harry paused, looking to the side. "On the other hand, there are things bigger going on. I'm recruiting a small team of the very best in the galaxy to help solve this problem. Cerberus is going so far to attempt and resurrect Shepard to fight this. If they succeed, he'll be the one leading the fight."

"And what do I care? If they do, they'll just put a fucking control chip in their head. Like they put in mine!" She growled. "You'd be dead right now if it were the case." Taking a few moments to draw in a breath, she continued her rant. "Besides, why would I follow you? You look _weak_. You're not some soldier type. You're not a biotic. I can smell them. So again, why the fuck should I follow a dress wearing pussy like you?"

Harry shook his head. "Well, the most important point would be that you don't really have another choice. If we don't take you, you go right back into the freezer." Harry grimaced. "And that would kill you, sooner or later. Maybe if you were lucky, it'd cripple you. Also…" He pulled out his wand, and spun it in his fingers. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead. Simple as that."

The woman snorted. "What would you do? Stab me with your little stick? Or do you just carry that around to make you feel adequate?" Giving her restraints one more good yank, she sighed before looking down at him imperiously. "So that's it? You're giving me the choice between going back into the cooler, and working for the people that tortured me. Not much of a choice at all."

"You know, I'm just about tired of this." Harry glared at the woman, grasping his wand tightly. "I don't have to listen to this. I know your type. You're just like Bellatrix. Or going to become her." Ignoring Jack's sudden confused look, he continued. "I was in the same situation you are in. Yet, I still accepted it. Maybe they stacked the deck in their favor. Or maybe I'm not aware of something going on. But I've learned to take what life's given me. It may be a crappy hand, but I'll keep playing until I make up my losses, maybe even take the pot if I'm lucky. But I'm not going to quit."

He stepped even closer, prodding her in the forehead. "But still, I will make the best of it. Because there are some things more important than what I want. So, I'll give you that option. Are you big enough that you'll take it? Or are you just going to sit here and wallow in your self pity. I need the best. Not some whiny bitch with the mouth of a sailor!"

Silence reigned o'er the chamber for a few moments as his words settled in. Suddenly, Jack began to chuckle. "Maybe the little pussy has balls after all." She shook her head and looked down at him, mouthing thinning into a tight smile. "Alright, I'll make you a deal. Since you think you're so tough, fight me. If you win, I'll follow your orders. Unless you decide to do something _incredibly_ retarded. Then all bets are off."

"Right here, right now?" At her nod, her turned back around and almost shouted, before remembering the chamber had been soundproofed. Cursing the fact that he didn't bring a radio, he waved his wand and vanished the pane of glass separating them. "Kuril! Cut the transmission to the control chip!"

After a few moments, the warden appeared where the glass had been, eyes wide. "What? You can't be serious! You'll have to fight her to get her back under control!"

Glancing back at Jack, who was sporting a vicious grin, he shrugged and yelled at Kuril, "That's the general plan! We have a deal, anyways!"

Muttering about insane wizards, the warden did an about face and left Harry's filed of view. After a few moments, where Harry was worried that they did not disable the chip, he heard a small chuckle from behind. Turning about face, he was met with the sight of Jack beginning to glow with power, steams of biotics licking the air about her.

"Well, seems you've met your end of the deal." Jack squeezed her eyes shut and grunted, tearing her left hand out of the reinforced restraint. "Ahh… That feels so much better. But you've never bothered to tell me you name. Is the little boy in a dress too ashamed?"

Slowly backing up and keep his wand at the ready, he replied simply. "Harry Potter."

"Heh, a Potter?" Another grunt, and she yanked out her other hand. "Well, ain't that just lovely? Facing the strongest of human biotics is a potter in a dress. Should I be afraid that you'll try to stick me on a table and spin me around?" Grabbing the restraint around her neck, she let out a guttural growl and ripped it to pieces.

Harry shook his head, grinning slightly at the banter. "Hardly. Not even if you asked nicely. Wife would get jealous, but she's not the type. She'd ask to join in."

Kicking the leg restraints off, the woman launched herself off, before landing right in front of Harry. "I can't wait to meet her, then. But for now, let's take this someplace more open. Catch me, if you can!" With that, she dashed past Harry towards the nearest exit, slamming her fist into the door. The biotics crumbled it, slamming it into the other side of the wall.

Smirking tightly, he followed after the girl, evidence of passing left everywhere in the form of debris that now littered the corridors of the space station. A few twists and turns through the destroyed rooms, and Harry found himself in the bottom of a wide-open chamber similar to the one he had observed earlier. Across the room from him was Jack, perched on the edge of the ledge.

"About time you caught up Potter! Have a welcoming home present!"

With that, her biotics flared again, surrounding one of the arms on the ceiling. With a groan of metal, she tore it loose and floated it in mid air. After a short paused, she grinned at him and thrust her fist forward, chucking the large piece of equipment at him.

With a wave of his wand, Harry released a slicing charm that bisected the incoming arm. Both pieces landing to the side of him, he walked forward through the rubble. "Thanks, but I'm not sure if I really appreciate it."

"Well, I'll just have to give you something to enjoy then, won't I?" With that, Jack leapt across the floor, throwing a few small purple orbs from her hands. While they sped through the air, twisting around towards Harry, she slammed her fist on the ground, sending a shockwave of energy towards him.

_Well, if it's a battle of power she wants, it's what she'll get_. With that thought in mind, Harry brought his wand up and cast _Protego_ over him. As the shield formed, the biotic pulses slammed into it, hammering Harry. After weathering that storm, the encroaching shockwave also slammed into the shield. The spell easily held that, but left Harry blinded as to her position as it flared up.

Once it cleared, he saw Jack running towards him, fist primed for a biotic attack. Reacting to the assault, his wand snapped down, unleashing a banishing charm into her. It met her right in the gut, sending her spiraling back the way she came.

However, Jack was either prescient or quick with her reflexes, as her biotics activated once again, righting her in flight. Landing on her feet, she looked up again and grinned. "So you do have some teeth after all. I wonder what else you can do."

Before she could complete her sentence, Harry swished and flicked at the nearby half of the arm she had chucked earlier. It hovered in the air momentarily, before he returned Jack's earlier present to sender. Under his breath, he muttered, "Heh, well I suppose her address is unknown. Or does a cell number count?"

Jumping out of the way of the log sized projective, Jack growled and tore loose various panels from the wall and ground. Floating them about like marionettes on a string, she launched them one by one, spinning towards Harry like multiple oversized, square buzzsaws.

Quickly intercepting them with his own banishing charms to deflect them, he launched a few more of his own spells. In an attempt to defuse the situation more quickly, he began lobbing bombardment hexes towards her, causing the deck of the station to tremble as they impacted.

"Fuck…" Jack was tossed to the side as one landed too close to her. Seeming to realize that as long as she stayed at a distance, she was at a disadvantage, she dragged herself up and began to charge, lobbing more of her biotic blasts at him, while slamming shockwaves out again. Alternating between the two attacks, she slowly made her way forward, Harry stuck keeping the shield up.

With the shield needing to be kept up from the constant attacks, Harry could only stand and wait for Jack to make her move. Which she soon did. As soon as the biotic came within striking distance of the shield, she leapt forward and slammed her fists into it with all of her might.

The shield noticeably rippled from the effects of the blast, absorbing the force. Harry was tempted to simply apparate out of the way and blast her from the side, but knew that was not what he needed to do here. He narrowed his eyes and subtly channeled his magic further into the shield, empowering it. Under his breath, he intoned the spell once again.

_Protego Maximus_

As he did all this, the biotic human continued her full frontal assault on his temporary bunker. Blow after blow hammered down, sending near constant ripples shimmering across the translucent surface. Nearly snarling, the seemed to not run out of energy, with each blow putting more and more force down.

To Harry's surprise, he found the shield beginning to weaken quite noticeably. The impacts were cascading throughout the shield, nearly resonating with the magic. Still, he was sure that he could outlast the attack, so he poured even more of his energy into it.

Finally reaching the end of her limit, Jack joined her hands together, threading the fingers between each other. Glaring down at Harry, she muttered, "Stupid, fucking kid in a stupid fucking dress, with a stupid, _fucking, _**_stick_**." With that, she once more slammed down her fists on the shield.

Only this time, the shield did not ripple. It stiffened, flashing opaque as it contained the blow. Blinded by the sudden light that the shield was now emitting, Harry closed his eyes, forcing even more of his magic through. However, he felt no response from his magic. Instead, he got a terrible, small noise.

Snap.

A small explosion lit between the two of them, as raw magic lashed out. Harry found himself thrown against the wall not ten feet behind him, arms and legs splayed by the explosion. He barely registered a smaller, more distant thump as Jack landed on the far side of the room. Cracking up his eyes as the blood pounded in his head, he spotted the in his hand the handle of his holly wand, the phoenix feather core waving in a non-existent breeze.

Mourning silently to himself, he waved his hand, and summoned the other pieces of his wand from wherever they may have landed. As they slowly made his way over to him, he staggered forward, trying to get a good sense of where his opponent was.

"So, your little toy is broken. Ready to call it quits now kid? Or am I gonna have to knock you around further?" Favoring a leg, but still standing, the woman grinned at him, before spitting out some blood. "I hope that wasn't nothing too valuable to ya."

As the pieces finally congregated above his hand, he sighed and placed his hand in his pocket, letting the pieces slide in. "No, it was indeed something quite valuable to me. But I'll be able to fix it." With grim satisfaction, he gripped the other hand he had not so much as used the entirety of his time spent in the future.

_Depulso_. With nary a thought, Jack was slammed against the wall. "But now, it's time for the kiddy gloves to come off." _Wingardium Leviosa_. Without even bothering to wave his spare wand, the entirety of the debris that had been dislodged in their brief fight floated up into the air. Softly stepping across the ruined floor of the facility, he stood in front of the biotic, restrained against the wall with his still active banishing charm. "Now, do _you _yield instead?"

Jack managed to emit a grunting sound. "I suppose, shit. Fine, I'll work for you. Now, will you let me down?"

With a short nod, he thought and flicked, and the charm holding Jack up faded. Collapsing to the ground, she groaned for a second, before looking up with a sarcastic grin. "Never met someone who had the balls to stand up to me and _win_ before. Most would either die, or fuck off take potshots at me from a hiding place."

"Most of them would, I imagine." Kneeling down, he eyeballed the wounds leaking from her. Taking the wand in hand once more, he muttered _Episky_ under his breath. Instantly, the wounds sealed up. "There, you should be fine now. Come on, we need to get moving before the warden shows up."

A laugh from Jack was his only answer. "Too bad, cause the pussy is already here."

Turning about, Harry spotted the turian making his way toward him, accompanied by a few guards. Garrus and Okeer were both trailing behind him. "Potter? What do you think you're doing! You could have compromised the security of this facility with those actions! Not to mention the integrity of the superstructure."

With an unconcerned shrug, Harry said, "Relax, warden. I made a deal with her, and she'll come quiet from now on. Won't even cause any problems from now on." He turned back around and stared at here. "Will you?"

Ignoring the grumbled yes that the tattooed human gave, Kuril stepped towards Harry. "Still, the damage you've cost my station is immense. I've half a mind to just take you into custody myself."

"So you can sell me off like everyone else?" Harry looked around. "But considering what I've done already, I'm surprised you still want to try." His wand thrummed in his hand, the arcane energies seeming eager to renew their activities.

Kuril paused, and decided to back away from Harry for some reason. "That's the only reason I've decided not to. Still, someone needs to pay for the damages." He turned around, staring at the remains of the arm. "That alone is nearly a hundred thousand by itself."

Harry shook his head. "I don't have time for this. But if you're going to be so insistent…" Another wave of the wand, and a cacophony of sounds were created as metal twisted itself back into its original shape. Bulkheads crumpled by blows became straight once more, and they settled back into position. Pipes torn apart by errant biotic blasts resealed themselves. The giant arm, meanwhile, stitched itself back together, before rising back up to the ceiling. As the groaning of metal stopped, Harry looked down at the turian. "Now, does that satisfy you? The worst of the problems should be fixed."

The turian stared at him for a moment, before stepping back further. "That… That will be fine. Now, would you kindly leave my station, before anything else happens?"

Nodding curtly, he turned back to his companions. "Garrus, Okeer, we're leaving. Prepare yourself." As a look of horror dawned on the turian's face, Harry stepped and twisted, leaving the wide open space of the station and returning to the by now familiar halls of the _Normandy_'s command deck. As three small pops sounded off behind him, he loudly said, "EDI, tell Joker to get us out of here. We're done here."

"Affirmative, Potter. When you have a moment, please report to the communications room. The Illusive Man has some new information for us."

With that, he turned around to find the new recruit trying to find a porcelain god to give her prayers to. Berating himself for his snap decision on the forced apparition, he walked over to her. "You holding up there?"

Between heaves, she attempted to reply. "Of course, that's why I'm painting your hallway with puke. Shit, what was that you pulled on me? Felt like my fucking insides were twisted apart."

Harry ignored the sarcasm. "It's one of my tricks. I'll tell you later." He sighed, knowing that any more of his magic would not be needed. "You should report to Dr. Chakwas. Who knows how long you were kept in cryo; it'd be better if she checked you over to make sure if there isn't anything else wrong."

"Whatever you say, Captain. You'll have to tell me what that deathstick of yours does later. Along with some other things I want." Forcing herself to her feet, she looked around, with one hand clutching her stomach. "So, which way to this doctor of yours? Or am I going to have to stumble around like a damned idiot until I find her?"

Okeer decided to chime in, apparently tired of the lack of action presently occurring. "I have to go check on my prototype anyway. I'll show your new… recruit, the correct way. If she thinks that she'd be able to make it."

"Fuck off, krogan." The answer only earned her a small chuckle from the alien, who proceeded to walk away. Apparently deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, she followed in his footsteps, not saying anything else.

Once she was out of earshot, Garrus took a moment to voice his opinions. "Isn't she just a lovely person." He shook his head and turned to face Harry. "Well, here's to hoping she's worth the trouble. And… you might want to turn the glowy-eye-thing off. You look rather unsettling with it on."

Harry nodded absently, until his he registered what Garrus said. "My eyes are glowing? Great, again. I'll just have to wait until it wears off…" He shrugged, making his way towards the armory. "But while I have the spare magic, I might as well get my wand fixed."

Cocking an eye ridge at Harry, Garrus followed in his footsteps. "Fix your wand? You were holding it when we arrived, weren't you?"

"I was holding a wand, my spare. But it's not truly _mine_. There's a difference." As he entered the armory, Harry noted that Jacob was nowhere in sight. _Probably in his temporary quarters down on deck three, doing some paperwork._ He made his way towards nearest clear table, and withdrew the fragments of his wand. Sighing, he placed them on a table."

Looking back and forth between the broken remnants of the wand and Harry, Garrus asked, "That looks like it exploded. Why did that happen?" He cringed. "It looks rather painful, come to think of it."

Harry shrugged. "Mostly because I overloaded the wand. I sent too much power through it, preventing Jack's attack from getting through. Even a magically enhanced piece of wood is still a piece of wood." He withdrew the other wand and waved it over the mess. Slowly, the pieces gravitated towards each other, wood fusing to wood and wrapping around the exposed phoenix feather. "It's still my piece of wood though. Even if it's not as strong as the other one."

Humming to himself, the turian asked, "So, why don't you just use the other one, if it's stronger."

"Because I don't need to, usually." At the turian's curious glance, Harry explained. "You know how I prefer to act. I don't like letting ay opponent taking a shot at me. I'm strong, yes, but that missile still managed to penetrate my shield back on Omega. And Jack is strong enough to pound through it, even when I was prepared."

"What I don't get is, why did you even give her that chance? I know you could have easily won that fight."

Harry nodded. "I could have. But I need her respect. Her trust isn't going to come, since she apparently hates Cerberus. And I can't count on earning her loyalty for a long time. But if she respects me, she'll follow. She'll grumble and moan at times, but she'll do her job." Reaching down gingerly, Harry picked up his wand and examined it closely. Satisfied that the slim holly stick was back into top condition, he spun it around and waved it, casting a few sparks into the air.

Merely watching the spellwork, the turian shrugged. "Alright, if you say so. As long as I don't find myself murdered in my sleep by naked humans, I'm perfectly content." He began to head towards the elevator door, before turning around. " You know, you still seemed pretty eager for that fight, all things considered."

Harry paused, before flicking his holly wand in his fingers. A spell shot out across the room, leaving a small scar on the wall. "Garrus, these fights might be difficult for you, but for me they're practically slaughters. It's… necessary, what we're doing. But I do not care for it. Not at all." He sighed to himself. "I hate to say it, but we're working for a greater good here. We just have to keep in sight what goal we're working for."

A small smile then came over his face. "But a proper duel? Even if it did basically consist of throwing rocks at each other, it was a change of pace. And a sign that maybe I've gotten a bit rusty, too." Unconsciously, his hand lowered to his side where he had stored the other wand. "Especially to the point where I would have to rely on that wand."

Leaning on the edge of the door, Garrus gave Harry an odd look. "What's so special about that wand? You're making it sound like it's a curse just to use it."

Harry chuckled to himself. "Oh, the wand is cursed. But not in the usual way." He glanced away, pondering for a moment. "It's a long story, but safe to say this wand is the most powerful one ever created." Raising his hand, he stroked his chin, still thinking. "With it, I could topple empires if I desired. But such power always comes at a cost. One I'm not willing to pay." Suddenly, he glanced over at Garrus. "I want to ask you this, though. If I'm ever killed, or lost, and that wand is separated from me. _Break it_."

Eyes widening at the vehemence in his voice, Garrus said, "That seems rather extreme. Are you sure about that?"

"Very sure." He looked down. "There are only a few others I'd trust with this stick of death. And by now, they're all dead. So if something happens, I want to make sure it's destroyed. Even if it has to be chucked into a star."

Giving a long sigh before breaking into light laughter, Garrus shook his head. "Yup, definitely extreme. But At least you won't do it halfway then." Nodding his head to the door, he said, "But I've got to get down there. Need to run through some calibrations. Although, I'll be taking my time. If I finish, I might have to work on the deathtrap."

Harry also laughed. "And we can't have that." Eventually, the jovial expression fled his face. "But I've got business to take care of. Got to make sure that my wand is working again. And then, go speak to our illusive leader."

"Ah, what fun. I'm suddenly glad that my itinerary includes the Mako."

"I bet you are."

-oo-

"Potter, it's good to see that you've been successful so far. Although, some of the reports I'm receiving are rather extreme." The flickering hologram of the man flipped his cigarette between his fingers. "Some of which are causes for concern. First, was it necessary to deal with the acquisition of Subject Zero as you did?"

Harry crossed his arms and stared at the man. "I assume you are referring to the fight?" At the subtle nod the older man gave, Harry continued. "I believe it was. Jack was not coming onto a Cerberus ship willingly. She seems to have some bad history with your organization. I needed to earn her respect, so I did it in the best way she would recognize."

"Hrmm." The Illusive Man took a drag of his cigarette, staring down at Harry. "That's all well and good, Mr. Potter, but remember that you are returning once Shepard is back to full health. We need her devoted to the mission, and not to you. Is that clear?"

Shrugging, he answered, "It is. I think she'll have to see what we're up against first. I imagine Dr. Chakwas hasn't even let her out of the medbay yet."

"True." A ghost of a smile flickered over the man's lips. "Still, the damage you caused was excessive. Not to speak of your apparent abilities at… apparition, you call it?"

Harry raised an eyebrow. "What of it?"

The man shrugged at him, taking up a glass of liquor. "It could be that I'm interested in replicating your abilities. Such a technique would be invaluable." He paused for a moment. "But, you're needed elsewhere. And I do try to uphold my bargains, as long as the other side does the same with theirs."

At Harry's silence, he continued. "But enough of that. You were able to recruit Okeer, who has integrated somewhat oddly with the good Dr. Solus." The smirk returned to his face. "And at the same time, he has his prototype. Intriguing find, indeed. A krogan like that might make any future operations much easier to pull off."

"I don't believe Okeer would be willing to risk his prototype, especially to help us. It's his life."

"Possibly." The Illusive Man took a sip and set his glass back down. "No matter. I will be in communication with him. He will need to have a few test runs, after all." He stared at Harry for a few minutes, seeming to judge his next few words. "I don't believe I have anything else to say about your other acquisitions. Although, it seems rather fortuitous that Archangel turned out to be Mr. Vakarian. That will prove invaluable with securing Shepard's assistance."

"Is that so…" Harry looked back at the hologram of the man. _There really is something disturbing about those eyes._ "From the sound of it, you're treating Garrus as some kind of leverage against Shepard. Almost like some kind of blackmail."

The hologram sighed. "I am aware you are still suspicious of me, Mr. Potter. But remember, I do what is best for humanity." He paused, before leaning forward. "Vakarian is a strong fighter, yes, but that is not the reason I am interested as such. Did you believe that we simply ignored your warnings?"

Harry tilted his head. "About what?"

"About Shepard not coming back the way he was." The man leaned back in his chair, nearly slouching. "I'll admit, that perhaps our methods are more crude than yours were. Maybe it's the other way around. But we are in uncharted territory, so it would be especially idiotic to ignore sound advice from one reputed to have witnessed resurrection."

"I do not care for the fact that Vakarian was one of Shepard's closest friends. The same with Liara T'Soni, and Zorah. Even Urdnot Wrex, to some degree." The man sighed. "But that does not mean I am not practical. He'll need some familiarity in order to settle back in. It is the reason I went recruiting as much of his old crew that I did."

Snorting, Harry said, "That almost sounds human of you."

A shrug was all the man gave him. "Perhaps. Do not mistake me, though. All I care is for humanity. And if it takes cooperating with aliens to help our kind, I'll do as such." A small grin danced across his face. "Although, the irony of aliens working with us might make it easier for him to accept that this trouble is bigger than we could handle."

For a few moments, the silence stretched onward. Eventually, Harry became tired of the staring contest, and said, "Alright, whatever you say. Speaking of Shepard, has there been any word about whether you're bringing him back yet?"

"Operative Lawson that they might try to wake him within the next few days." The man gave him a tight smile. "She had originally predicted that it would be done later. However, she was unsatisfied with such predictions, and accelerated the timescale."

Harry brought a hand to his head, eyebrows knitting together. "That is… worrisome. Something like this shouldn't be rushed." _And deep down, I know you agree with me._

Not giving away his emotions, though, the Illusive Man said, "Possibly. But we'll need Shepard. As competent as you have proven yourself to be, we need a figure for humanity to rally around. You could conceivably become that figure… But we'd need more time."

_Now that seems somewhat ironic. Time traveling wizard needs more time._ "If you say so. Was there any other information that we needed? At the moment, we've accomplished all that you outlined for me to do."

"There are a few more things. I've had my people feeling out a few more contacts, of which I'd like you to recruit." Picking up a cigarette, he took another slow drag. "But there far from being confirmed. But before I explain further, was there anything you particularly wished to know?"

Slowly nodding, Harry gave his answer. "You mentioned those books that you found in the underground of London. The ones you used to discover my kind. I want to see them."

"Hrm. Indeed you do." The hologram wavered momentarily. "I do not have any reason to deny it. Trying to discover what happened to your kind, so you can change it in the past?"

Harry snorted. "Hardly. I want to know what happened to the wizards now. If there are any clues in that book… I'd like to know. I know that I return, and I've seen so much that anything more I read won't change anything."

The man smirked slightly. "I wonder why we haven't heard from them, then. But no matter. I'll have the book delivered to Operative Lawson. When Shepard is revived, you'll be able to acquire it at the station, before you're sent back."

On the desk he was sitting at, a hologram appeared in front of the man. Eyes glancing down to take in the memo, he hummed to himself before setting them back on Harry. "Alright then, Mr. Potter, I've another job for you to do."

Eyebrows raised, Harry asked, "And that is?"

"Do remember my earlier comments about Shepard's former teammates. Cerberus approached all of them about possible work, but all of them declined, for various reasons. That isn't important. However, we've been keeping track of them, in case circumstances change enough that they decide to take us up on our offer."

He took a sip of his glass. "You are aware of the mission Zorah was undertaking after she departed? Less than twenty four hours ago, a quarian team touched down on Haestrom, in the Dholen system, behind the Perseus Veil. We hacked their communications to the fleet. Said communication has been… understandably sparse. However, within the last hour, they've made contact with a geth patrol fleet. Since then, all communication has ceased."

Harry's eyes widened. "So they're cut off. And you want us to go after them."

"I'd have been surprised if you didn't." All emotion fading from his face, the Illusive Man leaned forward. "I did inform you I wanted the best for this mission. Miss Zorah is, after all, one of them. But I do not need you or the rest of the team killed in the process of procuring her."

Narrowing his eyes, Harry shook his head while unconsciously clenching his fest. "You don't have to worry about that. You've _procured_ the best, haven't you?"

"That I have. Until next time." With that, the hologram faded away, and the room returned to its fully lit state. As it sank in what was happening while they floated in space, Harry spun around. "EDI, you heard all of that?"

The disembodied voice of the AI sounded over the comms. "Indeed, I did. Should I prepare for transit?"

Harry nodded, more to himself than anything. "Do so. And inform my team to get ready for an assault. We've got a squad to rescue."

A/N Alright, I'm back, and we're off to Haestrom. The next two chapters may be a bit longer, as I'm consolidating some plot points, but I don't suppose ya'll will mind too much. As for this chapter, it's another acquisition, and the first person to give Harry a challenge. And one who has probably cursed more than all the other characters I've ever written, combined. Such a lovely girl, that Jack.

Frankly, here I wanted to change the pace even mores, and make Jack live up to her title as the strongest human biotic. And yes, Harry acted a bit stupidly during the fight. He could have simply put a full body bind on her, stunned her, and hauled her off. But then, we'd have been no more than kidnappers in her mind, and she'd be even _less_ cooperative than in canon.

You might put it like this. I'm not applying it all across the board, but you could say that I'm taking the trope about cutscene power, and applying it liberally.

Either way, we're coming to the climax of Act 1, as I have been calling it in my head. So, as always, please read and review, and tell me what you think. Even if you disliked it. (To anonymous reader D, thank you much. And I can understand your points. I'll just ask for you to hold out, as there will be more changes coming up)


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